Without You
by Ashli28
Summary: PLEASE REVIEW, When Keller and Galen go on a mission to save a woman in hospital from the Night World one week before their wedding, things don't go as plan... Keller gets kidnapped... and can't say anymore without giving it away COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Without you**

**Ashli28**

Disclaimer: None of the characters or ideas are mine, all belonging to L. J. Smith. However, the sequence of events is my own portrayal of the story and should not be copied without permission.

Author's note: I don't normally write fanfiction but I love Galen and Keller and there's not enough wrote about them: so here we go… Feel free to rate, or to express constructive criticism. However, if you're going to say something about my writing, please justify it with a reason. Rating is T just in case. If anything gets worse than that lol, there'll be warnings. Also, later, a few characters die  feel free to hate me.

I've rewrote this a little, trying to make it better. if I've made it worse, tell me and I'll put the other version back.

* * *

It was a street, Goddess knows she had seen enough of them in her seventeen years of life, but there was something_ evil _in the air of this one. Factories and warehouses occupied both sides of the road, their windows cracked; Keller could see the lack of paint even in the darkness. No one would dare live anywhere near this street, if they had a choice. The only building that looked remotely clean was the hospital, and even that was full of cracks in the windows and shoddy paintwork.

But the Panther was chagrined, not by the thought that someone might have to _live _there, but by the lack of Night people around. She wanted to fight, wanted to hurt some of them – some of the one' that had hurt _her _so deeply in the past. She wanted to har their screams of terror, almost lived for their pain…yet that didn't make the streets more full. The world was quiet, or so it seemed from where she was crouching – in the shadows – it should be an easy job, maybe she hadn't even needed to take Galen with her.

Galen and Keller. Keller and Galen. Even thinking the names out loud together gave Keller a small shiver of satisfaction; they made a fantastic team, crawling through darkness – invariably not in their human forms – running through the trees, catching the Night World monsters and then going home to reap the benefits of being two engaged shape shifters in love…

Not that she had abandoned Winnie and Nissa for Galen; they weren't as good looking, and Keller was sure they probably didn't kiss half as well, but they were the closest thing she had ever had to friends, and she was willing to take them everywhere with her and Galen. She had even asked if they wanted to go on the honeymoon with them. They had refused, thankfully.

Unfortunately, sometimes the mission called for two of the team staying at the safe house with Illiana while the other two went out and stalked the enemy, and it was generally Galen and Keller: the two fastest, the two strongest, the two _shape shifters, _who went out.

The enemy had never stopped trying to reach Illiana, it was in the back of Keller's mind every moment of the day.

But this time, they had not been sent down in some desperate – possibly kamikaze – attempt to keep the Night People from hurting the Wild Power. Instead, Thierry had found out from some of his contacts and spies in the Night World that the vampires were attacking the hospital for a certain Elle Panter. No one knew why, but Keller had been ordered to get together a team and get the woman out of there.

It was cruel, so very cruel, that they should have to go on a mission, just days before her and Galen's wedding, but Thierry had promised it would be the last until they were back from their honeymoon and thoughts of it kept her mind off the mission and on the gorgeous golden leopard in front of her who moved like liquid as though he had been born a leopard. Watching his…back…

_The wedding, think about the wedding, _she willed herself, almost letting out a purr in contentment. She had a dress: it was black, not a traditional white wedding dress, but tucked at the waist with a full skirt that reached metres around her. She liked the full skirt – underneath – she could hide anything in there. The bodice was made of the fur of another shape shifter, as were the shorts she was going to wear under the dress, so that – if she had to – she could just rip off the skirts and change. A week earlier, she had had her name officially changed so that she would be Keller Drache, not Rashka Drache, and the girls in Circle Daybreak had been fussing for weeks about how she was going to wear her hair and make-up (although she didn't care if she just let them the way they were) especially Illiana – her maid of honour, the one who had made it all possible.

_Just one month ago, I didn't have him…cared only about my work for Circle Daybreak and I knew – knew – that I'd always be alone. _She stiffened, but kept on prowling. After all, when had Keller ever let personal miseries affect her work?

_Well, there was that one time, with Galen…and the dragon._

_Oh shut it._

And why was she so upset anyway? Her mother had been wrong; she wasn't alone. It must have been the air, making her nauseous. But that wasn't really what had overcome her with a wave of depression.

It was that, although Keller wasn't feminine in most respects, and doubted very sincerely that her wedding was 'the best day of her life' that it could possibly be any better than the she had ahead of her, with Galen, but it still sent a shiver of sadness in her spine when she thought about it. On her side of the church, she would have no one – Winnie and Nissa were her bridesmaids, Illiana her maid of honour, and who else did she have? Whereas everyone in his family and everyone they have invited from Circle Daybreak would be on Galen's side. Possibly wondering why he'd ever love someone like Keller when he could have had Illiana. Beautiful, sweet, powerful Illiana. Illiana the witch child. Illiana the wild power.

If she'd had hands, she would have slapped the thought away. She had work to do, and luckily Galen didn't love her for her nonexistent popularity, _he loves me because he has no choice in the matter, _she darted around the corner of a human building and changed back into her human form, "stop," she whispered with an authority older than her, pressing the pin on her jumpsuit. Galen suddenly stopped darting around the street and stood still, she made her voice even lower now that she had his attention, "change and jump over the fence beside you, that will take you to the front of the hospital. Stay there and wait as backup." He changed before her eyes from a leopard to a human boy in seconds and reached for the fence. He was trained not to turn back and look at her, but she saw his arm move to his collar and he said, "Keller, I have an idea. Why don't _you _wait as backup?"

"Because I'm a much better fighter than you," she answered, and there was no arrogance in the comment. They both knew it. Galen was a poet, liked to spend his time in the gardens around Circle Daybreak's Headquarters – Thierry's mansion – writing and reading. And before that, he had done the same in his own mansion, much to his parents' annoyance. Keller's only hobby since her early teens had been tracking down Night People and assassinating them, and before that she was already training to be a fighter. How could he ever compare? She didn't add that if there was danger, she'd prefer to die than live a life without him, that would only receive some sentimental comment from him no doubt.

He sighed, he knew what she was saying was true, "Okay, but Keller…" he hesitated, knowing he was just being overprotective, but feeling worry for her anyway, "just…just be careful, okay? Don't look for violence."

"I will be," and she made something like a chuckle, "and I wont. I have our wedding to think about to make sure I come back in one piece."

_Goddess, _Keller had no idea how hearing those words made him feel. His heart fluttered in his ribcage and he could barely cope with the thought of letting her do something on her own. Something dangerous. But he was not a chauvinist and he wasn't going to act like one when she was so obviously right. For her to even consider saying something like, pulling down the emotional walls and showing him she didn't want to be alone any longer…it was something he would never had thought was possible when he had met her.

He looked around inconspicuously, hoping he wouldn't get a berating off Keller – he wasn't supposed to, but he needed it. At first he didn't see her and he panicked (_what if something's got her and she didn't have time to scream before it killed her? What if she's already gone? What if…?) _a flash of silver caught his eye and he looked up. There she was. She'd climbed a tree and was sitting outside at the back of the hospital, waiting for him to get in place.

"I love you," he murmured, jogging as casually as he could to the front of the hospital and stopping there. It was an effort not to race up the stairs with his fiancée, but he stopped.

"Yeah, yeah, this isn't the time for sweet nothings, Galen," she was being sarcastic, but not in a mean way, "I love you too, but I'll be in and out in a second. It's an easy job." With that, she leaned over from her branch and broke the window nearest, changing into her panther form before leaping through it.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Despite it's appearances from the outside, inside the hospital was white and gleaming. It was the kind of place people would go really _expecting _to get better from whatever they had, but it was too bright for Keller's panther eyes. As she tried to find out where she was, it reminded her blatantly of Illiana: clean, bright, a pain in the ass…sure, she had gotten to like Illiana after a while, and she supposed it could quite possibly be the same with hospitals, but that didn't mean she wasn't annoying at times. But it was because of her that Keller had Galen, and she couldn't forget that. For that reason, Keller loved Illiana like a sister.

She smelled a strong odour of disinfectant in the air; it carried to her nose and sent a tingling hot sensation up it. Making her want to sneeze her insides out if it made that stinging go away. Had she been human, she may have been crying _Goddess, it burns! _To anyone who was listening. Then again, had she been human, it wouldn't have affected her half as much, she reasoned.

Sniffing the air in loud, wet sniffs that she was surprised no one was coming to inspect, she tried to pick out anything but the disinfectant, but there was only one thing in the air that she recognized: death. Once over, the Rashka in Keller would have bathed in that intoxicating smell, loved the luxurious waves it sent over her, tingling her skin, but now it only made her feel disgusted at herself.

_Just about everyone in this hospital who ever died would have had a living mother, a father, a child, a lover…some sort of family to care about them. And you used to get off on the lust off death? It's sick. If it was Galen here, dying…_

_No! _she couldn't think of that. She just had to do what she'd come to this godforsaken place to do. Which was to get a woman over in the maternity ward the hell out of the hospital and to Thierry's mansion. It wouldn't be easy if there were Night People about, but as long as Galen and she could get her two blocks away, Thea, Eric, Rashel and Quinn would take over from there.

She had chosen each member of the team especially. Galen: because he was a comfort to her and a strong fighter if she needed backup. Eric and Thea because, from the whole of the available agents in Circle Daybreak, they were the two most able to deal with a pregnant woman, and since she was in a maternity ward they assumed the baby would be coming pretty soon. Quinn and Rashel were there to protect Eric and Thea while the two shifters were getting the woman. As well as that, Keller was impressed by Rashel's strength, the two had become good friends, and Keller had been in a car with her more than once. She would get them from Point A to point C without even stopping to pick up Point B. put her behind the wheel of a van and she was wild.

Keller herself wasn't sure what to expect for her part of the mission – facing the human woman (or at least she assumed she was human, because Thierry hadn't told her any different) the only experience she'd had lately with any kind of parents was Mrs. Dominic – Illiana's mother – who was sweet but had an uncanny ability to completely ignore the truth when it was waved in front of her face, and Galen's mother, who was a warrior almost as hard skinned and unemotional as Keller was. Somehow she doubted that the woman would be like either of those people.

Or at least she hoped. Hoped with all her heart. Because Mrs. Dominic would have just denied anything Keller told her, and Galen's mother was incomprehensibly too stubborn. This woman was going to have to let it sink in, believe it, and go – just like that.

_So basically, Keller, you want her to be an unintelligent child. Even though you know she's a thirty-three year old woman with a degree in sociology? Yeah, that's real intelligent. I can see entirely why Thierry made you the leader of this little party. _

She forced the thought from her brain and opened the door of the room she had broken into, peeking out into the corridor. It seemed to b empty, so she shoved the door open a little wider, swaggering through after changing. Instinctively, Keller knew there was something above her – ready to drop – and she poised herself, ready if it decided to stop hiding on the ceiling and start fighting.

It didn't move, and after a few seconds this begun to worry her. She looked up. Saw the buzzing lights and a neon sign that announced she was in ward 34. Helpful. She didn't even know what sector in the hospital she was in – could be in the morgue for all she knew – but she knew she was in ward 34.

_Do they even have wards in morgues?_

A sound alerted Keller, a squeaky sound, followed by footsteps. _Like a vampire, _she thought instinctively, _a vampire…pushing something…_ she turned around and dropped into a semi-crouch, only to come face to face with a medical cart and a white-clothes woman, Keller followed the clothes up to the face and got up when she realised this woman was just a normal human: she was tall, almost as tall as Keller when she stood up, but with blonde hair feathered to her shoulders and wide blue eyes. Some would describe her as beautiful, apart from the long scratch down one side of her face and the black eye she was harbouring on the right.

"Hey, hun!" the nurse laughed, almost choking on a mouthful of chewing gum, "I know this ain't the best place in the world, but you don't need to fear the nurses," she grinned, showing a hap between her teeth – "you lost?"

Keller nodded, making up a lie as she went along, "my brother's wife just had a baby and I'm here to take him home. My brother. Not the baby. I'm looking for the maternity ward."

The nurse gave her a strange look that Keller couldn't entirely read but appeared to be confusion, "well, you're there! Not lost at all! Do you know what room your brother's wife is in?" Keller didn't, so she looked at her palm. She'd wrote everything she needed to know there, "Yeah, it's ward 33," Keller laughed at her own stupidity and shrugged, "sorry about that."

"Oh, it's okay, you made my day," she grinned, "nice speaking to you…uhh…?"

"Oh, it's okay, nice speaking to you…?"

"Rashka," Keller supplied.

"Rashka…I'm sure I know…no, never mind. Hope to see you again, my name's Paige. Look me up next time you're around," the nurse smiled a sincere smile then walked off with her trolley, squeaking like a vampire pushing something again as she moved down the hall, Keller chuckled, then stopped abruptly.

_Elle Panter_, Keller thought with a small melancholy smile, _I'm sorry about this, but one day I hope you'll thank me…or at least Circle Daybreak._

Then she stepped into Ward 33.

Keller had been expecting a plump woman, looking quite old and motherly, to be lying on the bed. She didn't get what she had been expecting; the woman lying there was rather young-looking and beautiful, even though Keller knew her real age, she could have been talked into believing that she was a teenager. The eyes were dark, almost black, as was the long curly hair that cascaded from her skull and landed beside the bed, almost touching the floor.

And she remembered her.

She was only a baby when her mother took her out of the hospital, despite the protests of the doctors who wanted to concentrate on this strange – _obviously diseased – _creature. She took her to a hill and set her down on the grass. She didn't look like a normal baby, but that was to be expected. She had a tail and ears in her half-and-half form, but she was beautiful that way. Lying on the cool grass beside her baby daughter, sixteen year old Elle Panter firmly closed her arms around her baby, "I _will _love you, Rashka, more than you'll ever know. It's not your fault you destroyed my life. It's not your fault my parents hate me, you're a demon that destroyed me Rashka, and god help me, I love you for it!

Another image, this time she was in an undecorated flat, watching her mommy do it again. She was only a baby, didn't understand what was going on, especially not at one month old. But even then – even then – she'd known it must have hurt terribly. Her mother dug the knife into her wrist, and she and Rashka cried together, sharing the pain.

Keller felt strangely detached from these images, as though it wasn't even her, even as she watched her mother, setting down a cardboard box and filling it lovingly with newspapers, "this will be your home for a while, Rashka," she announced to the three-month old child, "I hope you'll find a parent who can love you like your daddy and me never can," she sneered as she said daddy but grabbed he box and carried it down the stairs of the ugly flats, setting it down onto the street, pausing just before leaving a note addressed to 'Rashka' only Rashka. So as she could not easily be found.

The memories stopped.

"People Die…

Beauty fades…

Love changes…

And I will always be alone," Keller whispered, not even thinking when she subconsciously changed the 'you' to an 'I', her mother looked up from her place on the bed, and something seemed to click, her eyes grew bright and full of life, and god…Keller _hated _her.

"Rashka?" she breathed out.

"Keller." The shape shifter said, "my name's Keller now. Elle Panter." And now she saw her own mistake. She should have _realised _that this woman wasn't human.

Panter: German for Panther. This woman was a Panther shape shifter too. _How obvious. _Keller cursed herself.

"Keller, honey, what's going on in there? Why are you quoting your mother's poem? What's happening?" she heard, reached for the pin on her jumpsuit and turned it off.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

"Shit!" Galen Drache cursed as he heard only static in his ear. He knew something was seriously wrong with his soulmate, and she wouldn't talk to him. Now it had only been proved with her speaking the note her mother had wrote out loud. It wasn't like Keller, not the new Keller, the one who had found it was possible for her to love. For her to love _him. _Whatever had changed, he didn't understand how it could have come about so suddenly. Now, whenever she thought about it, he knew, she subconsciously added his words onto the end.

"now that isn't proper language, is it Galen?" Rashel taunted down his communicator, "what's going on? And do you and Keller always leave your communicators on permanently?" a moment hesitation, "oops, I thought she had hers on. Anyway, what's wrong?"

Rashel 'the cat' Jordan was never happy sitting in the car waiting for him and Keller to finish their mission, but she was a vampire hunter, not a shape shifter, and, because of that, she didn't have the same skills as he and Keller. she generally went on more missions on them, so she didn't complain most of the time. Now, she just wanted to be part of the action.

"I don't know." He paused, wondering whether he should confide in Rashel halfway through a mission, "she's acting strange."

"Strange? Strange how? Is the mission fine? She's not going to do something suicidal, is she?"

_God, I hope not. _"Thanks Rashel, really helpful there."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It might be nothing, but I'm going in. could you or Quinn get yourselves to the hospital just in case I need backup?"

Really, he wanted Quinn to get to the hospital in case he needed backup: Quinn was a vampire and would get to the hospital quicker than Rashel. Not only that, but Rashel lived for danger, would charge right into the hospital herself – kind of like Keller – instead of waiting calmly inside. Quinn was an idiot most of the time, especially when he was with Ash, but he was efficient.

"Gotcha." Rashel said, then the line went fuzzy again.

_What is it with women and leaving me out of the picture? _Galen wondered as he pressed his own pin, starting towards the hospital.

Keller stared at the white hospital bedspread as though it was its fault she was having to deal with this. She wasn't going to cry, no way was Rashka Keller going to cry. She hadn't all these years and she wasn't going to because that _bitch, _the one who had abandoned her, was a metre away.

She wouldn't cave into these strange desires that seemed to be telling her to fling her body into her mother's arms and cry, and kiss her, and hug her, and never let her go. She pushed back the feeling of love, the want to tell her mother _everything _about her, about Galen, about the wedding, about everything that was _right _in her life.

_Not that she'd even be interested, _she berated herself; _she _abandoned _you._

"Rashka," her mother seemed to be having trouble speaking. _Oh, well I'm very sorry for that. Feel bad for leaving me now? In a cardboard box, for goddess' sake. _She tried to turn away from the thoughts and looked her mother in the eye, "Keller. I told you, my name is Keller, I _changed _it. I don't want to be 'Demon'."

"Keller…Keller…" her mother seemed to be trying the name out, "I can't believe how big you are."

"you mean you can't believe I lived to seventeen after being abandoned in the middle of nowhere?"

her mother flinched visibly. _Good. Let her. _

"I didn't want to give you up, Keller! but I was an eighteen year old, single mother with no support from my parents. How was I _supposed _to cope?"

"I don't know." Keller admitted reluctantly, "not by slashing your wrists up," she wanted to hurt her mother bad, but now wasn't the time, "I'm working with Circle Daybreak, the shape shifters and the witches. You might know, the shape shifters joined because of the joining of Galen Drache – first house of the shape shifters – and the Witch child's blood sister: that's me, now I've been sent to get you. I didn't know you were my mother, and nor did anyone else, but the Night World is _coming _and I've got to get you out of here."

Why had she told her that stuff about Galen and her? Even just that little bit? _Is it possible you _want _your mother to know? _Keller asked herself, then shook her head. _Impossible._

"What?" Elle looked up, just as an explosion rocketed the room and something large flew towards Keller.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3.

_Oh hell…_Keller looked up, she didn't need to thin for even a moment before realising what the creature in front of her was. Her mother sat horrified, not in the sight of the dragon, whom – at the moment – looked like a normal human girl. But more because of the sight of three lions, two vampires, a witch and a werewolf, all looking on at her with savage expressions on their twisted but beautiful faces.

Keller's mother was a night person, she could figure exactly what they were. Keller – on the other hand – had only one thought, _got to get her out of here…they don't want me…_

It wasn't family love that moved her towards the female dragon – her _second _dragon – but instead the mission. She couldn't help it, she wanted more than anything to feel something for this woman, knew she was supposed to for the person who had lain in a hospital very alike this one while she gave birth to something looking not-quite-human, yet she didn't. the year they spent together – nine months of it being _inside _her – meant absolutely nothing.

She reached for the pin, damning herself for not leaving it on now, and yelled through it, "I need backup, now!"

Then she changed, she felt herself grow lower but more powerful, felt the muscles pile on top of one another. Then she pounced. There was no question about who she was going for, the witch could be taken out by Thea when she got here. Thea was a direct descendant of Hellewise and therefore had to be more powerful than _this _woman. The werewolf could be Quinn's. the vampire's, Rashel's and the three lion's: Galen's.

She figured this out in a fraction of a second, ready to give the orders when they came, knowing they'd leave Eric – the only human there unknowing of how to fight – in the car ready to drive. First though, this dragon had to die, she didn't know who was raising them – or why – but she wasn't going to let _another one _loose to command the shape shifters. She was a female in the form of someone looking about twelve, with angelic straw-blonde hair and large yellow eyes. If it was meant to make Keller think twice about attacking her, she was going to be in for a surprise.

Her claws felt skin, ripped it away easily, and only hoped that it had been the forehead, she bounded right over the top and dropped the skin to the floor while the dragon barely noticed it was gone. With a motion of the small girl's fingertips, the others charged at her.

_Guess it wasn't the horns then._

A disturbance came from the doors that Keller had entered through, but she didn't turn around, she bounded at the dragon again, extending her claws to their full length and ripping a good percentage of her face off, she felt something sharp in her claws and hoped desperately that it was the horns. She let go. Two horns fell to the floor in a bloody heap.

_Keller! _the voice was in her head, and she turned to see Galen staring at her, in his leopard form, talking through the telepathic soulmate link they shared. He was alone, and apparently surprised. But he bounded over as he spoke.

_Galen! _She replied, feeling orange fire from the witch sink into her fur and set her skin alight while the lions pounced on her, she howled out in pain, swiping them back, then continued the sentence, _Get Elle out of here! NOW!_

Keller was used to being obeyed, and was almost surprised when Galen didn't go to the bed, lunging to the nearest vampire, who was coming up behind her, taking it down onto the floor and flattening it beneath his weight, _I can't leave you!_

_Just go! I'm expendable, remember? She, _she jerked her head at her mother, _apparently is not._

_I have to buy time…_she realised when Galen didn't move. She jumped onto the werewolf, wipping her teeth into the flank at its neck, hoping that it would be enough to put it out of commission for a while, it thrust forward and tossed her of its back easily. She looked up to see Galen.

He didn't agree with her, she could see that by the way he was staring at her, tender and hurt, even in leopard form, but he changed and ran to the bed. The dragon went for him, changing as it moved, but Keller lunged, and the distraction was enough for Galen to reach the bed and help her mother out of it.

_Rashel? Quinn? Thea? _Keller asked, knowing that he wlould know what she ws requesting. She rounded the dragon as it changed, halfway through she went for it while it vulnerable. Two more horns popped off. Gone. It was dead.

_Downstairs, there are more that this, Keller. a lot more. They're securing the passage for _her. No need to ask who the _her _was.

_Good. Go._

Then she felt a sharp pain like nothing she had ever felt before, and the whole world went black.

_This is it. _She told herself, _this time…I really am dying._

* * *

Galen ran out of the door, holding the woman up, he didn't see the flash of red lightning that could doom his soulmate, but was instead down the hall in a second. Dead bodies lined the hallways and he half expected to see a blonde girl with gentle brown eyes, or two people so dark but pale, looking lifelessly up at him. No. it looked as though Circle Daybreak were getting out of this alive again. Thank goddess.

"Keller!" the woman gasped out as she hobbled across the hall, "we can't just leave her!" she seemed in anguish, but no matter how much pain she was feeling, Galen was getting it a thousand times worse. She was his soulmate, his fiancée… this woman didn't even know her.

_Let her be alright, _he pleaded, not knowing who he was praying to, _please, oh goddess, let her be alright._

She was too brave, almost suicidal in her courage, and Galen loved her for it, but still. She had to be okay.

"Galen! Over here!" he heard a call and Eric was standing beside the front door of the hospital, surrounded by vampires that he no doubt didn't kill. Eric was one of Galen's best friends in the group, being even quieter and shyer than he was; now, he couldn't help feel a little resentment for the fact that he was here, safe, while Keller was still fighting. Nonetheless, he passed Ms, Panter to the boy and changed into his leopard form, ready to fight if anything else went wrong.

Nothing did. They made it to the van safely, the woman hobbling, being so very pregnant as she was, Eric suspending her, and Galen on the look-out. Eric and the woman got into the back of the van, where Thea and Quinn were waiting. Galen opened the front door and jumped in next to Rashel.

"Keller?" Rashel asked sharply, expecting the worse. And Galen knew that she did care. Keller and Rashel were good friends, and he knew Keller appreciated Rashel more than any other girl in Circle Daybreak, apart from perhaps Winnie and Nissa: they were the same, fighters.

Galen took a deep breath, "she's still in there, fighting."

"We'll wait," Quinn interrupted, "but you know our orders, Galen. We have to be out of here before sunrise."

Quinn wasn't being cruel, just realistic, if they waited past light there would be more chance of them getting caught and hauled to human authorities. Galen nodded slowly.

"Don't worry," Thea put in softly from where she was sitting with the woman, holding her hand. At first he ignored her, thinking she was talking to Elle Panter, but then she added softly, "she'll get out, and if we're not hear, she'll find her way back. She's Keller after all."

Galen had to wonder if that was the truth.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 3.

He cried shamelessly as they drove back to Thierry's mansion in Las Vegas. He didn't care that Quinn and Rashel would be judging him over it, or that if they ever saw Keller again they would tease him mercilessly about it. He didn't care the sympathetic looks Eric was giving him, or the arm around his shoulders that he supposed was supposed to be comforting; it wasn't, the only arm that would comfort him was Keller's, and this one belonged to Thea. They all tried to comfort him, but it was okay for them – they all had their soulmates next to them, except Elle Panter of course. She remained silent.

They'd had to leave, they'd waited hours while all four of the other Daybreakers tried desperately to convince Galen not to go back into the hospital – Circle Daybreak couldn't afford to lose one soldier, never mind two.

He had to hope that she'd gotten out and just assumed that they'd follow her orders and had left, therefore sneaking out of the back and running back to Las Vegas in panther form.

Why did that scenario not seem very likely to him?

For the first time since they set off, Elle Panter spoke, "my daughter, oh god, they'll have killed her!"

Thea took her arm from around Galen's shoulders and frowned, reaching for the woman's hands, "your daughter? Was she inside the hospital too?"

"My daughter," Elle repeated, "you mean you don't know?"

Galen couldn't care less about this woman or her daughter. Only Keller mattered to him, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Quinn and Rashel share confused looks. Which was dangerous, since Rashel was driving and had been known to have little…accidents…from time to time which generally involved them having no car by the time they got back to the mansion.

Thea shook her head, and the woman laughed bitterly, "my daughter: Rashka Panter…or Keller…whatever she wants to call herself now."

Keller awoke, if she had thought she had died before and gone to heaven, she definitely didn't think that now. If she were in heaven, why would she be sitting in the back of a van tied to a rack? Maybe this was hell…

Her body ached from the top of her head to her toes, and parts of it she couldn't feel, she knew she should be dead right now, but she didn't have to wonder for long why the Night Worlder's had kept her alive.

Torture. They'd be disappointed, because they sure as hell weren't getting anything from her. She would die happy knowing she hadn't betrayed Galen or any of her friends.

She looked down to make sure none of her bodily parts that she might need in the future, if she ever escaped, had disappeared. What she saw made her shriek out, her jumpsuit was ripped in a few places, the whole of her left thigh downwards was left bare, a scratch of it had been ripped from her chest, and her midriff was showing. _Every _bit of skin she could see was cut and bleeding, turning white milky skin bright red as though she'd been staying out in the sun a little too often.

"Not winning any beauty competitions now, are you Rashka Keller?" a snide voice came from the right of her, and she turned to see an immaculate looking vampire with hair as red as flame and silvery eyes. The girl reminded her of Jezebel Redfern, which probably meant they were related.

Not a good thing, not when Keller knew how tough Jez could be. Keller didn't say anything.

"Not talking to me, are you not, Keller?" the girl sulked, "it's okay. You'll have company soon. The Draches' are already at…where we're going."

The Draches? Keller closed her eyes; they couldn't have got Galen. She'd planned it so well, made sure they couldn't _possibly _have gotten Galen. He was Prince of the Shape shifters, Circle Daybreak couldn't afford to lose him. Rashel and Quinn knew this, would have protected him with every last breath in their body… so if they had him…

_Oh Goddess, _Keller could hardly comprehend the thought. Galen would be gone, but so would Rashel and Quinn, and – unless they could drive quick enough to outrun the vampires – Thea and Eric and her mother. And Elle Panter was apparently needed.

Circle Daybreak was going to lose.

"You have…Galen?" she asked, rasping the words out, doubting that the vampire would tell her the truth anyway, to her surprise, she looked down at the floor.

"Not yet, Rashka Keller, but don't worry. We _know _you're more than his fiancée, you're his soulmate, he'll be running to save you, we'll get him." She was talking as though she and Keller were on the same side against a common enemy, as though she expected Keller to be pleased that they were going to capture Galen.

"Why were you after Elle Panter?" Keller asked stiltedly.

The vampire looked up again and smiled, "I see no harm in telling you. You're not going anywhere. We know she's your mother; we wanted to draw you out to her, and bring your fiancée with you. Unfortunately, we only got one of you…the other will follow."

"But why?" Keller cried out, kicking herself for being so foolish.

"Politics, Rashka, just politics."

Stunned silence followed the revelation, but Galen couldn't now look at the woman without feeling a sense of disgust; she had destroyed Keller, made her think nothing was important other than fighting, and she thought she had the right to refer to her as her daughter? Maybe in blood, but in no other way.

Galen couldn't forget the note.

Lord Thierry and Lady Hannah were waiting for them at the mansion, along with a mass of guards, including all three Wild Powers, it was a foolish risk to have them out in the open like that. Apparently it was needed. Rashel and Galen got out first, leaving the others in the back for a while.

"where's Keller?" Thierry asked, without even greeting them, his eyes were clouded over and he seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"we don't know. We had to leave," Rashel said in her perfectly controlled voice, "she might still be fighting, or be one her way back."

It was obvious what she wasn't mentioning, that she didn't want it said in front of Galen. There was bile in his throat, he swallowed it, then spoke, "or she could be dead."

"Captured is more likely," Thierry frowned, looking to his soulmate, there seemed to be a question between them because she nodded, and he turned to Galen, "we had a traitor in Circle Daybreak, he has been _dealt with, _but the Night World were never actually after Elle Panter – who I have just found out was Keller's mother – Galen, they were after you and Keller. They devised this mission as a way to get Keller and you away from my mansion and out into the open. We have news that your family have also been captured, although we have no clue as to where they might be being held. The traitor wouldn't tell us, no matter what we…tried…" he seemed ashamed of himself even thinking about torturing information out of this person, but obviously saw it as a necessary evil.

"Why?" Galen gasped out. This was too much to comprehend, his family and his soulmate gone in one day?

"We did manage to find that from him." Dully, Galen was aware that the others had gotten out of the van and were standing beside him, offering words of condolence: useless. "they've been awakening dragons. Not the really powerful ones, I don't think they have that power. Fortunately for us, the shape shifters wont follow the dragons anymore, not now that you and Keller are the next step in the hierarchy, and she's a blood sister of the witch child," he shrugged, "they want the whole Drache family dead, and then they think the whole of the shape shifters will follow the dragons. I'm sure they're planning for you to go looking for Keller and your family so that they can capture you."

"what are we going to do?" Rashel asked, it was a good job she did. Galen wanted to know the answer, but couldn't trust himself to speak.

"That's up to Galen," Hannah said in her soft voice, "but we'd advise that he rule his people from here, where he's so well protected," at the shocked glances, she asked, "what? Galen's the substitute king right now. In the meantime," she looked at Thierry, and there was the feeling of unspoken question between them again, "we'll get a team together to look for the missing Draches and Keller." she touched his shoulder gently, smiled softly, "they wont hurt her, not while they still want you."


	6. Chapter 6

**Piscean Wisdom**** 'So how is Elle Panter involved in this? Did the Nightworld use her, or was she in on the plan?' **Ah sorry, I didn't realise until you wrote this that I left that unclear heh. They were just using her to get at Keller and Galen, they assumed that Keller knew she was her mother and would get sent; when this wasn't the case, she got sent anyways. Sorry.

Chapter 6.

Galen didn't want to have to lead his people. Really, he couldn't have cared less about them one way or another right then, he wasn't bothered about anything except finding Keller. Thierry assured him that, if he wished, Circle Daybreak would handle it until Keller was found, but that he still couldn't leave to look for her, else the now-king of the shape shifters would be caught and they would all leave the Night World.

That didn't stop him trying.

There were always two guards outside his door, ready to yell at him if he even thought about leaving, they escorted him everywhere around the Daybreak mansion. Once it was Quinn and Delos, another time Rashel and Morgead, then Jez and Ash, now the two outside his door were people he didn't know. Thierry was taking every precaution; not even letting the soulmate couples guard together in case they got…preoccupied.

Now, he even had Nissa and Winnie waiting outside in the grounds of Circle Daybreak outside his window since he'd tried to get out that way in his leopard form. If the two guards at the gate – Leahmi and Senya – hadn't stopped him, he might have found Keller already.

He felt some guilt when he realised that he wasn't even half as bothered about finding his family as he was Keller, but he pushed it away. Keller was his other _half; _he couldn't live without her. Of course that was different to his parents.

His only condolence was that he hadn't felt her die. Yes, he had felt her every gasp of pain and horror – he was sure she was being tortured just to provoke him – but as long as she was still alive, he had hope.

There was a knock on the door, and he looked away from the ceiling. He had been lying on his bed for days, staring at it, trying to think of a way to rescue Keller, just feeling everything she was feeling, trying not to wince himself. He hadn't used his vocal chords in the last few days, and when he said, "Come in," it sounded more like "omn gginn" he opened and closed his mouth a few times, then tried again, "come in."

It was Thea, with food. The witches had been coming around with sedatives and food ever since he'd found out about Keller and his family, they didn't seem to realise that he didn't want to be tranquillized and useless to her, or that he didn't have the strength to eat anymore without her. He stared at the ceiling again now as Thea walked in.

"I know you're not hungry, Galen," she murmured, looking around the room, where untouched food was lying about, "but are you doing any good to Keller by wasting away? What's she going to think when she gets back?"

"And what if she doesn't get back?" Galen asked gruffly, closing his eyes as he felt the tears start yet again, "what if Circle Daybreak can't find her? What would _you _be doing if it was Eric's life at stake?"

"Eric's life _was _at stake, when we met," she sat down on the bed, "because we're different species' but I understand what you mean. Galen, I'm going to give you my honest opinion of what I'd do if I was _you_ and this happened," she looked at him, "I'd get off the bed, go make myself look presentable, then go lead the shape shifters, organize _them _to search for Keller. how many shape shifters are there in this world? Thousands! Millions, I bet! And most of them will follow you to the death…" she paused, "I talked to Hannah, and Thierry wont order _your _people to do that, he doesn't feel it's his place, but you could."

He thought about that for a moment, there _were _a lot of shape shifters, and if they _all _looked for Keller, she could get back quicker, but would they really follow him? He was one hell of a sorry excuse for a king, especially if he needed Thea to put the suggestions into his brain.

"But I _didn't _come here to tell you what I'd do. I came here to tell you what Circle Daybreak is doing; Winnie, Morgead, Poppy and Gillian have been sent around the clubs, along with some other people, to try and get some information. In the meantime, Rashel, Blaise, Ash, Kestrel, Rowan and about fifty other Daybreakers have been sent to known Night World locations for some raids, I'm going with them in case they need medical help. We have the humans: Eric, David, Maggie and Mary-Lynette looking for information through the computers and documents that Thierry has stored. We have almost all the Las Vegas Daybreakers looking for her, Galen. We'll find her."

He sat up, and moved to the window, looking outside for a moment, then he grabbed a brush and forced it through the tangle of knots his hair had become, "thanks Thea."

"For what?"

"For making me see what I have to do. You're right, I have to lead them, if we're going to find her alive."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The cell was small, cramped, especially for a family of five – and Keller – Galen's three younger sister's were sitting on the floor, crying, and Keller thought of the unfairness that the Night World would destroy three _little girls _just because they wanted the dragons to rule. Okay, so the oldest of the three: twelve-year-old Sia, would be queen if her parents and Galen died, but would any of the shape shifters follow her anyway?

Keller had done a lot of evil things in her life to win, she knew that in seventeen years, she had caused more death than the average general, but she would _never _sink to killing children.

As soon as they had arrived at…wherever they were…Keller had been taken into a different room to the one which Galen's family was on, tied up with heavy silver chains designed by a witch to stop her shape shifting; she had been beaten, and it wasn't that they wanted information, because they had already gotten that from a traitor, they just wanted to make sure Galen was pretty damn certain that she was suffering.

Now, she sure as hell wasn't going to win any beauty competitions. She couldn't see out of the one eye, her hair was matter with blood, and the slashes across her jumpsuit had multiplied. She almost wished they _had _been torturing her for information, then she could feel like she was doing something important by suffering while she told them nothing.

"Daddy, I'm scared," four-year-old Brena announced, clinging to her father's leg. Galen's parents both had the same chains that restrained Keller from changing, but even if they didn't, it would have been impossible for a lion and a wolf to get through the bars, and probably useless anyway, since there were over a dozen guards watching them, and scores could come at demand.

Keller just had to hope that Galen wouldn't come looking for her, as much pain as she was in, as much as she didn't want to see those young children die, or even herself die, she didn't want Daybreak to lose the war to the Night World because she had been foolish enough to get caught.

_Just another mistake you made because of your mother, Keller._

But she couldn't even muster up enough hate for her anymore. She had been pathetic when Keller had been a baby; only the age Keller was now, slitting her wrists to stop the pain. Keller almost understood.

Now, as she watched Galen's father take his child into his arms, his free arm around his wife's shoulder, Keller only longed for Galen. Even though for him to come would destroy the war effort, he was her only family.


	7. Chapter 7

Warning Character death. There will probably be quite a bit character death in the next couple of chapters to make it more realistic. I know, I know, people will hate me. But hey…

Chapter 7.

Music was pulsing through her brain, and Winnie had to wonder whether she would still have any hearing left by the time she got out. But simple things like hearing weren't important when they were dealing with the life and well being of her boss, of one of the leaders of the shape shifters, of her _friend. _

She still remembered the day they'd met, Keller had seen her shooting at targets with her orange fire, had watched the severe determination on her face, and started talking. Before she knew it, Keller had requested her for her first mission and Winnie was forced into something more violent than anything she'd ever experienced.

And she had been loving every minute, until this happened.

It had torn the whole team apart, along with the additional members of Illiana and Galen. Galen was obviously terrified and depressed, along now that his soulmate was gone, he didn't seem to be able to operate without Keller, and Illiana wouldn't leave her room – which was probably a good thing, now that there weren't as many guards to guard the wild powers.

Sure, the Wild Powers were the most important people, but they didn't have as high a chance of winning against _both _the vampires and the shape shifters.

"Winnie, you got anything?" Poppy's lively voice cackled down the communicator in her ear, "have you got anything, anything at all?"

She didn't, she'd talked to over a dozen witches who remained true to the Night World. Her coppery hair was now a deep brown, her eyes changed to golden with contact lenses and she was wearing so much make-up her face felt clogged together by it, but she couldn't be recognized – all of the spies had to do it, even a protesting Morgead. None of the witches could have possibly known she was Daybreak from the way she had acted, and yet there were perfect blanks. She couldn't exactly come right out and _ask _where they'd taken Keller.

Morgead's voice was in her head next, less lively than Poppy's, more weary, "me and Poppy have a vampire here – name's Josef – he's a Night World Elder, absolutely notorious, hates human with a passion. Poppy's…ummm…keeping him company right now," the way he said it made Winnie think she was more likely making out with him, wouldn't James be pissed if he knew? "we're going to try and get him outside…try any means necessary to get it out of him. You up for it?"

Winnie choked back the bile threatening to take over her throat, any means necessary? But if he had information leading to the whereabouts of her friend, then Winnie was about to do _anything, _besides, Morgead and Poppy might need someone to brain wash him afterwards. Poppy was a witch, but not very well-focused on it, she liked being a vampire more. They might _need _her.

"sure. Should I get Gillian?"

there was a hesitation, and awful thoughts circled in Winnie's brain for a while, until Morgead spoke again, "she's too innocent, Winnie. Poppy and I already agreed that we'd leave her out of anything violent."

_Poppy and I already agreed, _sure, they were the leaders of this little party, the one's Thierry had put in charge, but since when had it been up to them to decide who was too innocent to do anything? And why did they thing Winnie _wasn't?_

"Oh…Okay… I'll follow you out," she heard herself saying, but the pit in her stomach made her feel sick.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rashel 'the cat' Jordan crept through the shadows as though she had been born in them, beside her Blaise Harman was slightly less diplomatic. Her steps were heavy, but what could you expect from a witch who had never been involved in a raid before?

They were at a warehouse in Las Vegas, it was a known Night World smuggling bay which they sometimes took prisoners too. Rashel and Quinn had spent a lot of hours stalking the place out when humans were being sold as slaves from there, but they had never attacked it, instead attacking the vans that transported them.

Rashel prayed that the Night World didn't know they knew about it, because it seemed a likely spot to her. She was the one in charge of this little escapade, and she'd marked out four of the most likely places that they could have taken Keller and the Draches. A part of her had wanted her whole team to split into four and each one take a spot, but that would have been dividing their resources, and possibly causing a bigger risk to the Daybreakers.

"owww!" Blaise howled as she slammed into the back of Rashel, almost knocking both of them flying. Rashel brought herself into a semi crouch just in time, making herself have a larger surface area so that she didn't trip, then she brought one leg around so that she was facing the witch who had almost risked the whole mission, "Don't do that, for Goddess' sake," she hissed, "if you can't keep focus, then go away and send Thea instead."

They were harsh words, but Rashel said them only to knock some sense into the witch. She didn't want Thea to come. They needed to sneak their way into the warehouse, and a seductress with enough charisma to charm herself over would be more helpful in that respect than a medically-inclined witch, who would probably see a shape shifted animal hurt and insist on helping it.

_Don't be mean, _Rashel told herself, but she couldn't help it, she felt disdain for anyone who wasn't a fighter. She associated most with Jezebel, Keller and Poppy from the girls in Circle Daybreak: two vampires and a shape shifter. She almost laughed when she thought about it.

"Sorry," Blaise murmured, pushing her midnight black hair into place, "I wasn't expecting it to be so dark."

"We're underground, what did you expect?" Rashel hissed, "torches lighting the place, fireflies shining and showing the way? Of course it's dark!"

Galen had finally got his ass in gear, Rashel thought, and helped try to save his soulmate instead of moping. In spite of her annoyance that it had taken him so long, Rashel had to appreciate that she didn't know whether she'd be able to do it if Quinn was the one who was missing. He'd organized for some mole shape shifters to come to the warehouse and dig under it to get them a passage into the warehouse. Guards, of course, had come on their rounds and Rashel had had to resist the temptation to stake them, had instead let the witches brainwash them into thinking everything was fine.

_Now, _she thought, as she burst out of the tunnel and into an empty storage room, _you can stake them, _she pressed the communicator on her black leather vest and yelled into it, "Okay we're in, come on!"

_Calm down, Rashel, _she heard Quinn's laughing voice in her mind and had to chuckle herself, because of course the idea was ludicrous, she was on an adrenaline high.

The door to her left bust open, and Rashel and Blaise were faced with half a dozen vampires. There was no point in Blaise trying to charm them all at once, or even brainwash them. She'd never manage it, the only thing left to do was fight.

"Stay behind me," Rashel hissed to Blaise, stepping forward, "I can handle them. Summon some witch fire if you can, if not, just stay back."

Blaise nodded, forming her hands into a circle as light grew inside of them, getting larger and larger, Rashel heard the occasional mutterered word. The vampires charged.

In a split second, she had reached inside her shirt and was pulling out her prized stake. Too bad she didn't have her marking tools with her, it would have been amusing to let these vampires know _exactly _who they were dealing with.

"This kitten has claws," she whispered, before instead of after she staked the vampires as her good-luck statement. Then she was tearing through the vampires, thrusting her stake in and out of their bodies with such a fury that surprised even her; before, she had liked, not to take her time, but at least give them some opportunity to fight back. Now, she was unstoppable, she lunged with her stake at yet another vampire, it mummified in front of her. There was only one left, she stared at him.

"Rashel!" there was a cry from the back of the warehouse, and Rashel – in her rush – had forgot all about Blaise. Now, the witch in question was locked in a deadly embrace with a vampire and his teeth were coming down.

She ran, with all her might to the other side of the warehouse, but the one that she had assumed was the last grabbed her leg and pulled her back on her stomach, Rashel dropped the stake accidentally, then rolled onto her back. With her other leg, she kicked the vampire in a place that all men – vampire or not – don't like to be kicked, again and again. He fell to the floor in pain and she grabbed the stake, digging it into his heart before he could recover.

She turned just in time to see Blaise fall to the floor; the vampire had drained her dry and…disappeared…Rashel didn't see how it was possible, but he wasn't in the room.

She pressed her communicator, "Blaise, Goddess," she looked over at the girl, slumped dead on the floor, at her empty form, the vampire hadn't left a drop of blood in her, "Oh goddess, she's been drained. She's dead," she didn't know who she was talking to, until Quinn's shaky voice came through the other end.

"Goddess, Ash…he…he dived in front of a stake…for me…" he paused, "Thea doesn't think she can do anything for him. The poison's too far into his heart…I can't tell her about Blaise yet, not while Ash's life might be…"

Rashel didn't need to hear anymore, one of their friends was dead, another dying. Ash was Quinn's best friend, Quinn had known him since he was a kid, and he was…

"Oh goddess, those _bastards," _she hissed, heading towards the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.

Warning Character Death.

Ash looked up at the gentle girl, tending to his wounds even though both of them knew there was no hope. He hated to have his cousin watch him die, in the middle of nowhere. He was almost glad that his sister's were already in the warehouse and didn't know he'd been staked. Quinn was sitting beside him, trying to put on a stoic face while he protected Thea.

Protected Thea, not Ash, they all knew he had no hope. Now, all Ash wished was that he could see Mary-Lynette's beautiful face one more time before he died. She didn't think she was beautiful, but oh goddess, she was. She had told him not to come, but he wanted to help, ahd wanted to banish 'Bad Ash' forever, but he wasn't sorry even now.

If he hadn't gotten staked, Quinn would be dead. And that might have been even worse, Quinn had Rashel and they were two of the best fighters Circle Daybreak had ever seen. They were more important to the war than Ash was. He groaned and pushed Thea's gently prodding hands out of the way.

"Don't, I know it's no good, Thea. You should get out of here before they come back."

"Quit the martyr act, Ash, it isn't like you," she kidded, but he could see the tears in her eyes, and he could feel the poison grab his heart and squeeze. It hurt, almost to the point of the unbearable. But he remembered a talk he had had with Gillian once.

"_Ash, there is an afterlife, I don't care what anyone says, it's bullshit. I died once, was brought back, and the light – it was beautiful, I was in a meadow, and I felt almost at peace, and that was even before I was _completely there, _it's what keeps me fighting, Ash… I know that if I die, me and David will still be together there later."_

_He had laughed, "are you sure that wasn't an illusion? With your frozen brain and all."_

"_and next, you'll be telling me I imagined Ang…Gary. Think of the old souls, for them to come _back, _there had to be somewhere where their souls were in between. And Gary was still alive in this in between Earth, even though he wasn't on Earth – and that spirit that Thea sent back and…"_

_he had held his hands up in defeat, "okay, okay, there's an afterlife," frowned, "I hope us vampires can get in. after all, we _don't _come back."_

_She had shrugged, "only one way to find out, and I wouldn't advise it."_

"I'm finding out now, Gillian," he whispered, and Thea and Quinn exchanged looks.

"I think he's delirious from the poison," he heard Thea say from some far off place as his brain floated through meadows and light, "I should have something to slow it…"

Quinn stopped her with a hand on her arm, "if he's right, and there's nothing anyone can do to save him, what's the point in delaying his death?"

He knew him, Ash realised, wishing he could laugh, but his throat was sore as though he had been hitting it with a wooden log, Quinn wasn't being cruel, he was telling Thea what he knew Ash wanted to tell her himself.

Something wet dropped onto his forehead, and then a kiss on his forehead, he understood what Thea was doing; it was witch ritual, blessing the person for the next life, but he didn't understand why she was crying, "I'm sorry Ash…I wish…but no one could help even if we got you to a Daybreak hospital, I am so, so sorry."

He nodded, although the effort hurt him, and felt himself being pulled towards the grassy meadows – his time was running out – "Tell Mare I love her, tell her we'll meet again sometime, but not to do anything stupid," then he shuddered, hearing Quinn saying, "we will, Ash, I promise you."

"Thanks," he muttered, and felt himself drift away, just waiting to die.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Poppy twisted her finger around the hair of the vampire she was kissing, it was strange – making out with anyone but Jamie – but she did what she had to do. The guy had breath like stale blood, but she tried to forget that, she breathed against his neck and unbuttoned the top button on his shirt suggestively, seeing Morgead nod, "why don't we go somewhere and have our _own _party?" she whispered seductively, flicking her now-blonde hair over one shoulder and smiling appreciatively.

She could almost see him panting – like a dog, she though disgustedly – and wondered how she was going to handle this if he took her somewhere Morgead and Winnie couldn't get into. She didn't like playing the seductress act, she felt like she was being unfaithful to Jamie, even though he would have condoned it to get Keller back, and she was much to frivolous and childlike to act sultry and sexy for long.

_Don't worry, Poppy, _she told herself, _there's no place they can't get into. Morgead can pick locks, and Winnie doesn't even need tools to do that. You're worrying over nothing._

The vampire smiled, his fangs showing. His black-haired head traced Poppy's body down and then back again, and she had never been more aware that she was practically naked in a black miniskirt and midriff top "lets go."

He lead her outside, and – to her surprise – into a gully. No need to worry about picking locks. Momentarily, she wondered whether it was a trap, whether he was leading her to an ambush, but when he pulled her into the shadows of the alleyway where they couldn't be seen, Poppy knew that he just wanted what she had offered him.

He kissed her, starting solely on her mouth, then moving down her throat to kiss the base, while she arched her back and pretended to be enjoying herself. In the shadows, she could hear two shapes approaching – just as he would have been able to had he not been…occupied…

As they came closer, Poppy let her arm fall to her side, feeling a toothpick fall neatly into her hand, she ran her fingers along the guys stomach gently, teasingly, then pushed the toothpick in.

"Aaaggghhh! Jesus Christ, you little bitch!" the vampire was howling now, he grabbed Poppy by the shoulders and pushed her back, sending her flying into the brick wall behind her, one of the figures broke into a run, and he pinned the vampire to the opposite wall with all his strength while Poppy picked herself up and snarled.

"you're gonna be sorry you did that," she hissed, pulling another toothpick from up her sleeve, feeling very un-poppy-like. But that had _hurt, bad. _Winnie stopped her, sticking out her arm and grabbing the small wooden stick from her. She shook her head sharply.

"You're damned Daybreakers," the vampire hissed, "god, I should have known by the way _that _little _tart _came onto me," at that, Poppy pushed Morgead away and held the guy to the wall herself.

_Tart? Me? A tart?_

"you're going to tell us everything we need to know," she told him, pulling him off the wall and back against it again. Poppy was a whole head shorter than him, but at least equal in strength, his head banged satisfyingly against the wall.

"A...a…about what?" he stuttered out, writhing, trying to get away.

"The name Rashka Keller mean anything to you?" Poppy asked.

"Yeah, she's a Daybreaker…Ohh…Prince Galen of the shape shifter's fiancée, right?"

Poppy nodded, and took another toothpick from her sleeve, "and what else."

"She was kidnapped," he gasped as the toothpick went through his side.

"And _what _do you know about that?" Poppy continued.

"You've gotta let me go!" when no one responded, he went on, "I…I don't know much, but her and the Draches have been taken to some secret warehouse just outside Vegas. Or at least that's what I heard…I don't _know _anything…just rumours, y'know?"

Poppy nodded, "you've been very helpful," and reached towards her skirt for her stake, a hand on her arm stopped her, when she saw Winnie glaring at her, "he gave us our information, let me brainwash him, let him think you came out here and he had a good time…"

There seemed to be a staring competition going on between the witch and Made vampire before Morgead intervened, "I've gotta agree with Winnie, Poppy. That's why I brought her out here."

Poppy gave in, passed the vampire over. He cooperated, knowing to run would be to die. Morgead ran back to the club to get Gillian so they could get out of there.

"I Didn't like doing that," Poppy whispered as Winnie worked on the vampire, Winnie wasn't so sure.

When she'd finished, Winnie set the vampire onto the floor, gesturing to Poppy that they had to leave before he woke up. Morgead was waiting for him, his expression clouded with anxiety.

"what is it?" Poppy asked.

"It's Gillian. She wasn't in the club…" he frowned, as though he couldn't quite believe it, "she's disappeared."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

A lurch that almost knocked her over flew straight at Mary-Lynette. It wasn't something physical, something that the others sitting with her could see, it was carried in the wind to her, something searing in its evilness.

Pain. An overwhelming sense of agony that she couldn't avoid, couldn't hope to run from, it burst through her heart, and she felt as though she was in a game of tug-of-war, where she was the rope and both teams were made up of linebackers.

She had to fight to gasp out each small breath of air. It hurt, oh goddess it hurt, and suddenly she felt the vomit rise through her chest and erupt in her throat – she was going to throw up, oh god she was – she pushed everyone else aside in her rush to the bathroom connected to Thierry's study. Leaning over the toilet, she puked until she felt there was nothing left in her body to get rid of.

"Ash," she whispered, forcing down the nausea, "Oh goddess, Ash," she could stop the tears from falling freely down her face, not even when Maggie walked through and put one gently restraining hand on her shoulder, "what's wrong, Mare?"

"I…" all of a sudden she wasn't sure, "I…I don't know," she shook her head, the quickness of the action forcing a wave of sickness on her again, she gulped it down and shook her head again – slowly this time – "I just felt so sick – it was agonizing – then the only thing I could think of was 'Ash' I don't know if I want him hear while I'm ill or if…"

"Or if he's hurt?" Maggie guessed, and Mary Lynette nodded slowly, "Oh Mare, I know it must hurt, I'm glad Delos wasn't allowed to go," she hesitated, realising that that wasn't the best thing to say to an upset girl missing her soulmate – who was probably being beaten or was fighting right then – "but he'll be fine. Ash can take care of himself, has been forever."

Mary-Lynette nodded, feeling the truth of the matter, and removed herself from the toilet bowl, flushing the vomit away. She wiped her mouth and Maggie got her a glass of glisteningly clear water from the basin, she took it gratefully, "I suppose we'd better get back to work, huh? So we can find Keller…"

"Yeah," Maggie smiled, "but with my role of supervisor, I hereby order you to take a break."

"Who made you supervisor?" Mary-Lynette asked weakly, feeling the effort with each word.

"Me. I am the Deliver, I sure as hell can be supervisor for a few moments," Maggie grinned, a self-mocking grin; she didn't believe a word that she was saying, "go on, Goddess knows the boys and I will be able to cope without you for an hour or two. Go take some sleeping pills and conk yourself out."

_What a fun thought, _Mary-Lynette was sure her inner-voice was attempting to be sarcastic, but it did actually seem like a better alternative to work to her, she nodded, "thanks Maggie."

"No problem," the other girl winked, "I might take a break myself. Last time I checked on Delos, he and Jez Redfern were debating how they qwere going to sneak out of the mansion and help," she rolled her eyes, "his testosterone is going haywire because he's been left here. It's all he talks about, all day, all night. You're lucky Ash was allowed to go."

Mary-Lynette tried to laugh, but found that she couldn't as she was overcome with another wave of sickness. She turned and threw up into the toilet again.

_Suppose I didn't puke my insides out last time. There's still some there._

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eric and David glanced at each other as they watched the two girls speed off in the direction of the bathroom, then David shrugged and they both got back to the tedious task of looking at the many documents Thierry had kept of Night World Cults and not-so-secret-now locations. It was boring work, and both of them wished that they could be with their soulmates, but Circle Daybreak seemed to think humans were weak children who needed protecting. Eric was almost surprised they let Rashel go. Then again, how could they stop her? She would take down as many Daybreak guards as she needed to, to be in this mission.

The phone rang, making both boys jump. They looked at one another for a long moment, silently arguing over who was going to pick it up. With a sigh, David reached over and took the phone from its holder, "Hello, Thie… yeah. Uh-huh. He's right here," he covered the receiver with his hand and whispered to Eric, "it's Thea, she's calling from Quinn's cell phone – she sounds upset."

Eric had had little feelings through the soulmate link between him and Thea that Thea was in turmoil, but he hadn't been able to do anything about it without leaving the headquarters – which he wasn't allowed to do – he had just sat, helpless, as he felt every tear. Now he didn't even bother greeting her before he asked, "Thea! Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?"

"I…I…Yeah…I mean NO! I'm not hurt…" she was whispering, and she seemed to be choking her words out, "but oh goddess, Eric…you need to tell Mary-Lynette. Ash…Ash…he's… he got staked, I couldn't do anything for him!"

Eric felt his stomach turn itself over as he stared over at the stairs Mary-Lynette went up. But Thea was also the only medical witch they had thee, she must have been in charge of helping Ash, and there was no doubt his soulmate was going to be resenting herself over it. His first duty was to her, and that was why he didn't bolt after Mary-Lynette, he turned his back to David and spoke in a low voice, "it wasn't your fault, Thea. You know that."

"I know…I know," he heard the slight rustling of leaves, "but Blaise…she was drained. She's dead too, and I _wasn't even there!"_

Oh God, not Blaise too. Sure, she had tried to kill him and take him from Thea forever at first, but Eric would forgive her anything for what she'd done in the end, saving him and Thea from death, leaving Thea with all her witch powers intact. She had stopped hating humans – had become a good person, and now…look where it had gotten her.

"Oh god, Thea. You have to come back to the mansion, you can't be out there," he heard his voice quiver out before he even processed what he was going to say, "it's too dangerous."

"I have to," she muttered. More rustling. "Quinn and me will be inside the warehouse in a few seconds, Eric, I _need _to try and help the injured. I'm the only one who can," she paused, "I don't know if I'll be coming back," her voice gave away the fact that she not only 'didn't know' but she highly doubted that she would, "but tell Mary-Lynette that Ash loves her, that they'll meet again but that she isn't to do anything stupid. They were his last words – she _has _to know. And Eric? I love you, more than anything in the world. remember that. Always."

"Thea, please!" a desperate voice called out – _my god is that me?_ – but all he heard in return was the sound of a dial code. He stared at the phone in disbelief. She'd hung up on him. His _soulmate _had _hung up _on _him._ He gulped, put the phone down, and looked over at David, who was staring at him.

"Ash and Blaise…they're dead, and Thea wont come back, she thinks she's going to die there," Eric closed his eyes in pain, then reached a decision, "I'm going to talk to Mary-Lynette, then I'm going after Thea."

"Don't be an idiot," David said harshly, "you aren't doing Thea any favours whatsoever by going and getting killed."

"I've helped her before," he shrugged, even though he felt like crying, "I might only be human, But I can still help."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

David was alone in the study, staring at a document that he had read four times and still wasn't sure what it said, the phone rang and David realised that this was starting to get monotonous, he picked it up and answered, "Hello. Descouedres residence…"

"David? Is that you?" a male voice cackled down the line. It was a bad connection, like someone had taken a sweet wrapper and rolled it across the receiver, he finally figured it to be Morgead, "Yeah, Morgead, it's me, I suppose you want Jez?"

"Uhh…actually no. I'm calling from a pay phone, and it's gonna have to be quick because Poppy only has so many quarters, but man, Gillian's missing."

David got up from the slump in his seat and sat up poker-straight, "what _exactly _do you mean, _missing!"_

"Missing, as in she's disappeared, kaput – gone. We left the club to interrogate a vampire, we didn't want her to see it so we left her, we went back and she wasn't there. We've searched for hours."

"Why the hell did you leave her there? You," he couldn't think of a name bad enough, instead sinking back down into his seat, "I have to find her."

"We don't think she's dead," Poppy put in helpfully, she must have been standing away from the phone, because her voice was a whisper.

"Goddess, no, I'd have felt that," David tried to breathe, but his lungs felt as though they were collapsing, he stared at the phone, "I'll have to tell Thierry about this."

"Yeah," Morgead agreed, "I've gotta go, Poppy's ran out of quarters. I'll phone if we find _anything," _David momentarily wondered how he was going to do that with a serious lack of quarters, but didn't ask. He didn't intend to be around, he was going to have to find Eric.

After all, they needed a plan if they were both going to try and get out of the mansion.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Mary-Lynette, can I come in?" she heard a voice through her door and she almost said no. she had the feeling it was going to be bad news, and she didn't want anything to break the peaceful feeling she had lying in bed in the dark.

"Yeah, come in Eric."

He did, opening the door then sitting on her bed, looking away from her as though he didn't know what to say, "Mare, Thea just called…I have some bad news."

"It's Ash, isn't it?" she asked, "he's hurt, isn't he? Are they sending him back? What's wrong with him?"

Eric looked at the floor for the longest time, and she started to get desperate, "Thea said he wanted you to know he loved you, that he would see you soon, that you shouldn't do anything stupid. There was nothing Thea could do for him, Mare…he's gone."

She stared at him. Oh goddess no, it couldn't be true. She'd sent him away for a year – _she'd sent him away!_ – and they'd only just been together a couple of months now. The world wasn't that cruel, he couldn't be…

"No! you're wrong! You're lying! I'd know it, I'd know it! You're lying…" she trailed off, knowing she was being irrational but not caring, "Or maybe Thea is…maybe you misunderstood. But he isn't DEAD – I'd _know!"_

Eric stood up, walked to the door, perhaps thinking she wanted to be alone. Goddess, she didn't, but he went anyway, he paused in the doorframe, "we're not lying to you, Mare. We don't have any reason to, and I think you don know…you just don't want to admit it."

Then he left the room, leaving Mary-Lynette, crying – the tears spilling down her cheeks, "Oh goddess, Ash – I'm so sorry!" was there any point in going on any more? Not if Eric and Thea weren't lying.

"It's a misunderstanding, he can't be," she cried against the bed covers.

**(((Well…At least I managed a whole chapter without Character death this time…It'll finally go back to Keller, Galen and Elle Panter when I can work up the stamina to write the next chappie)))**


	10. Chapter 10

**Laura:** Sorry! Sorry to you and to anyone who's emailed me. I am sorry! But it had to be one of them with a human soulmate back at Thierry's mansion (you'll find out why later) and it couldn't be Thea or Gillian because they have their own story-lines in this, and it couldn't be Delos, because he isn't even at the warehouse. And oh…you're so going to hate me even more in a few chapters. Love how nobody's bothered about Blaise though lol.

I'm evil, I felt like writing a heartless fic. I know, My heart has turned to stone, perhaps I need to get a new one. I promise it will all turn out in the end. Ash will still technically be dead, but it will be okay.

**shoes come flying **oh fine, I'll just write the damn thing. Hehe.

Chapter 10

Elle Panter was fully aware that so many people hated her for abandoning her own daughter, for being the whole reason that this daughter was now suffering at the hands of some crazy who wanted to end the Shape Shifters hierarchy. She didn't care. They could hate her, all she wanted was Keller – back at Circle Daybreak.

She was so sorry for what she'd done. More sorry than anyone would give her credit for. She had thought about Rashka every day of her life ever since she'd left her in the cardboard box in fleeting depression. She had wrote that note in anger, in loneliness. She hadn't meant for it to be taken so seriously by her daughter.

Now, with Keller's half sister in her stomach, she knew she would never let this child go. So, she had failed yet another relationship and was coming out of it a single mother, again. This time though, she was going to do things properly, not feel sorry for herself while her baby suffered.

That didn't make anything up to Keller though, and she couldn't even hope to start her redemption until her daughter was back, with her soulmate, safe.

From what she had seen of Galen, she had approved. He was a mess, hardly knew what he was doing, and that somehow pleased her. He couldn't live without Keller; he wasn't like any of the men she had ended up with over the years. She knew she didn't even really have a right to approve or disapprove after what she'd done, but she couldn't help it.

"Oh God, let her be all right," she whispered, then drifted off to a fitful sleep inside her room at Thierry's mansion.

Keller lifted her head as yet another blow came down on her. Agony shot up her back and into her stomach, she felt sick, but the only sign of recognition she gave the pain was a small wince. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream.

But, _Oh goddess, _it was hard. They'd burnt her and hit her with heavy metal planks, once sticking a sword into her leg and pushing it so far down it took from her thigh to her ankle, leaving a wound gushing with blood that they hadn't bothered to close up. None of the Draches were going to be hurt – yet – until they had Prince Galen to finish the family and could kill them together. All they cared about was making Galen come looking for her.

_Don't give in Galen, please…_despite her earlier resolution not to show pain, one lone tear dotted her cheek and fell to the floor with a splash that sounded louder to her than anything possibly could be.

"Okay, That's enough!" The vampiress who she had spoken to in the van was yelling. Her red hair like flame, and Keller wondered if her captors had recently discovered compassion, until the voice called again, "we don't want her _dead _yet, or what reason would Galen Drache have to come to us?"

_You heartless bitch, _Keller thought, but kept it to herself as two thugs – a vampire and a werewolf – grabbed her arms and hauled her out back into her cell. Normally they would have just prodded her with spears or swords until she walked herself, but she was pretty sure that they'd broken her legs this time.

_Damn these chains, _she cursed, wishing she had the power to egt them off. If it hadn't been for them, she would have been going down fighting, the way she'd always wanted to die. She had little experience fighting as a human, but she would have tried it if she had even just a wooden stake, now, of course, she was going to be useless for a while...

As soon as she was half-dragged, half-carried into the cell. Galen's mother stood up, "what have you done to her, you bastards? You must know by now, my son's not coming. Leave her alone!" she moved towards the vampire guard, a six-foot-something mass of muscles, as though to strike, but he backhanded her across the room before she could even try.

Keller wasn't sure how she managed to talk, but somehow she did, she opened her mouth, fully aware that blood was dripping down her chin and spluttering out of her mouth with every syllable, "Just…just leave it, I'm okay."

"Like hell you are!" Galen's father hissed, but he had just seen what the vampire had done to his wife, and he had two children clinging onto him for dear life, he wasn't in a position to fight. As Keller sunk onto the floor, and the vampire and werewolf left, all she wished for was death.

But she still heard the calls from the other room as the vampire who looked like Jez Redfern screamed out, "I'm sick of waiting! We're going to have to make a direct infiltration of that Daybreak base! Or that Drache will never get his ass here!"

Then she let the blackness consume her.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11.

"How many times do I have to tell you people?" Thierry fumed. Jez, Delos, Eric and David stood before him, restrained by guards all three guys squirming like kids who know what they're doing is wrong but do it anyway and know they're facing the consequences, Jez looking perfectly calm even though Thierry's deadly gaze and Hannah's disappointed one was solely on her – she was used to that, she tried to escape often - "_especially you, Jez, _that what we do is for _your _own protection? You and Delos are _needed, _you can't run off to a place where people like you are dying!_" _he turned to Eric and David, "and you two: Blaise, Ash, Raven, Red, Blossom," he ticked them off on his fingers as he spoke, "three vampires, a shape shifter and a witch have already fallen! What were you two going to fight them with?"

They exchanged glances that seemed to ask just that, "actually I was just going to try and find Gillian," David said, looking at the floor.

"And I just wanted to bring Thea back," Eric added.

Hannah squeezed Thierry's arm, a reminder not to get too mad. They understood better than anyone what it was like to be apart from one another, and now they had most of the soulmate couples separated for what could be the last battle they ever faced. It wasn't fair, and if Keller weren't so important, she'd be wondering whether it was worth it.

He sighed, and Hannah knew he was going to let them off the hook with nothing but a 'please, please try not to do it again,' but the door to the left of the office burst open before he could say anything. The bundle of red that jumped through and promptly tripped over the desk chair seemed to be in a reckless sprint, breathing hard, they all looked over at her.

"Poppy, don't you ever knock?" Hannah asked with as much joyousness as she could manage given the situation.

Poppy pulled a face as though knocking was something she'd never heard of before, then recovered quickly, David looked over, hoping for the best, but she just shook her head, sorry to be disappointing him, "We haven't found Gillian yet, but we decided one of us had to come back," she refrained from adding that that _one _had to be her because Winnie and Morgead thought she was too reckless, "we needed to tell you that we…got information…from a vampire. A respected, evil one, Josef. He told us that he'd heard Keller was being held in a warehouse just outside Vegas." She paused, "I stopped at a few other clubs on my way back, and everyone I talked to agreed."

Thierry had sat down and dropped his head to his desk in annoyance as she was talking, now it bounced up as though on a spring, "what?" he yelled, "you're telling me that we've sent them to the wrong place? That we've lost Ash and Blaise and Raven and…in the wrong place!" he cursed, "I'm an idiot," but Rashel had told him the place was the most likely place for them to take Keller, and when it was as heavily guarded as it was, he had assumed she was right. Now, to find out he'd lost five of his best agents, for _nothing, _it was despicable…

"It's not your fault, Thierry," Hannah whispered, but Poppy rushed on, "and a few told me it was North east of Vegas too, so that should narrow it down."

Thierry nodded, turned and pressed a button on some fancy electronic equipment lying on his desk, pressing a communicator to his ear, "Rashel? Quinn?" he waited for a few moments, "we found out that" a long hesitation, "yes…" pause "that's what I was going to tell you" a silence that seemed to go on forever, none of them in the room with Thierry even dared breathe, "I see…I'll send a helicopter straight away."

"there have been no more dead," he told the others briskly as he reached for his phone, but his hand wavered there, and they all got the idea that he had something he didn't want to tell them, "but there have been three people hurt: James, Holly and Thea," Poppy stopped bouncing and grinning and seemed to deflate in front of him, Eric sat down on the floor with a thud as though his legs could no longer contain him, Thierry reached for the phone, "I'm sending a helicopter to take Thea and Holly to the nearest hospital," he turned to Poppy, "of course, James will have to come here, so I'm sending a car for him, you can drive it if you want."

Eric's voice was gruff; he was surprised he could even get his words out. Or his one word anyway, "Thierry."

The vampire sighed, "it's probably against my better judgement, but go wait outside, the helicopter will come get you," he looked hard at both of them, "none of them is going to die, James had a stake through his side and Thea's been stabbed through the stomach, but they'll both live," he turned away, "wish I knew whether I could say the same for Holly."

Quinn surveyed the room quickly, positive that every last vampire had been finished off. The whole of the warehouse had been checked, and there was nowhere for Keller and the Draches to be.

They had lost so much in the wrong place. His best friend, and four good friends from Circle Daybreak. James lay on the floor, panting large raggedy breaths as he held something Thea had given him to his side. Holly Albert, a witch, was lying on the floor, unconscious, a puddle of blood surrounding her as Thea tried to start work on her, ignoring her own blood. Quinn sighed and stepped over to where Rashel was sitting, her hand on her ear, "I can't believe that I was wrong! I can't believe that a _normal warehouse _was so heavily guarded!" Rashel let whoever was on the other end get out a few words, then went on, "we're coming back to the mansion! Because they're not here, you know. We've searched the whole place and James and Thea are bleeding all over, stabbed in the side and the stomach. And Holly's near dead, you're gonna have to come and get them."

She sounded so authoritive, so commanding, that Quinn was surprised when she turned to him and said, "that was Thierry," most people were in awe of the _first ever _made vampire, they wouldn't boss him about. But that was Rashel all over. He stared at her beautiful face, at her wide green eyes, and he realised that – if Ash hadn't jumped in front of the stake – he would never have seen her again, never have got to revel in her bossiness and her strength, and – when she felt like it – her kindness and sensitivity, her optimism. He had never felt this way about anyone; he had thought he had loved Dove…but that…that had been nothing, compared to what he felt for Rashel.

Turning, she said, "it's a sobering thought, isn't it?"

_That I love her more than Dove? _He thought momentarily before realising she wasn't reading his mind, "what is?"

She pointed off towards where she was looking, at two girls huddled together: Rowan and Kestrel, crying over the loss of their brother, Quinn felt a sadness looking at them, as though he should go over and talk to them, but he knew they didn't entirely trust him anyway, he nodded, "and he has a soulmate at home who's gonna be so distraught. I can't stand the thought of you dying and leaving me," she put her arms around him, "and I can't stand the thought of you being upset when I eventually die."

Quinn gulped, he tried not to think about that often. He didn't want to imagine that when Rashel finally died of old age, he'd be left alone. Again. As he had been all those years, he tried to push her away.

"So I'm not going to die. I want you to change me."

He stared at her, his mouth open, and he snapped it shut before she noticed. Where had the Rashel he knew gone? The one that resented vampires so strongly would have killed him had he even suggested such a thing. He stared.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," she muttered, reading his mind, "two of my best friend's are vampires. Oh, and you are. I've learnt not to hate them. You." She paused, "I don't want you to be lonely."

He could barely speak. It was what he had wanted from the beginning, but he had to wonder if Rachel's pain at having to watch her friends die was speaking, he found his words, digging through a lump of bile as he spoke, "are you sure? Living forever isn't all it's made out to be…"

She kissed him, and he stopped caring, "yes, I'm sure. As long as we're together and fighting, it'll be great." With his vampire hearing, Quinn could hear the blades of a helicopter nearby, he looked towards the unconscious lump on the floor, then beyond her to James, who was being helped up by his soulmate. Strange. He hadn't heard Poppy come in. "I'll get Holly," he said to Rashel, "you help Thea to the helicopter."

She nodded, "see you outside, then yodelled to the others, "Okay, you guys, come on, we're leaving now!"

Reluctantly, the sisters and other Daybreakers followed Rashel and Quinn out of the room.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.

Morgead sank down into the front seat of the car that some of the other Daybreakers had gotten for him and Winnie. It was a convertible. Fire engine red. He liked the car, even if it wasn't exactly practical if Gillian turned out to be injured, but it was perfect for the devil-may-care vampire and witch Night Worlders they were impersonating – and that he had once been. He longed for his motorbike, almost as much as he did Jez, but that would have been even less practical. Or at least that's what Winnie said, he didn't think much about practicality.

Now, he was even less practical than ever. He was beyond pissed off, and that was never a good thing with him, he was now in what Jez called 'one of his very excited states'.

"I give up!" he announced so loud that the car next to them probably knew, he didn't mean the words, knowing he couldn't give up, but ranted them out anyway, "we've looked in _every _club in Vegas and _no one – _I repeat, _no one – _has seen Lennox. She's a Harman for heaven's sake! She's pretty hard to miss, damnit!"

"I give up," he announced, not meaning the words but ranting them out anyway, "We've looked in _every _club is Vegas and no one has seen Lennox. She's a Harman for heaven's sake, she's pretty hard to miss, damnit!"

Beside him, Winnie nodded her agreement, "Yeah, but they could have been lying, and besides…" she paused, patted her own now-dark hair for affect, "we did change our appearances quite a lot, she hardly _looks _like a Harman."

"Yeah, I know," he wasn't just saying it, he _did _know, he'd been telling himself the same thing ever since they started searching for a girl with auburn hair and bright blue eyes – instead of her platinum blonde hair and violet eyes that he was used to, "but I promised David we'd get her back, and what in hell are we supposed to do now?"

Winnie frowned, "I think we're gonna have to go back to the mansion, Morgead, get a proper search party together, maybe a few other witches who can track her better than I can."

He nodded, grabbing the gear stick before ramming the car into reverse and making a U turn in the middle of the road while horns blared out at him, Winnie grabbed onto the door handle, ready to bolt out of the car in a second if he somehow toppled it, but he was perfectly calm "you're right. David wont be happy. Jeez, I'm not happy, but you're right."

* * *

As soon as they got to the hospital – a surprisingly normal, human hospital – Thea and Holly were risked away and Eric was ushered to the waiting room. He had been asked to give details for both girls, even though he told them again and again that he barely knew Holly and didn't know a contact address or her birthday. He didn't want to put Thierry's mansion in case there were night people about and they realises who she was. For Thea's contact address and number he put his own house, her grandmother had been killed…Blaise had been killed…she really _didn't _have anyone else anymore but him and his family.

Once the annoying people following him about with forms had gone, Eric had amused himself reading the various leaflets around the waiting room for the first hour since Thea had come in, although he didn't care about diabetes or pregnancy or deafness, he was just trying to keep his mind off what he was do…if…if she didn't make it… now he was a nervous wreck, couldn't sit still for more than a minute.

He paced from one end of the waiting room to the other, and back again. He looked at his watch, two hours had gone by since Thea and Holly had come in, and the nurse hadn't come back to tell him about either like she promised she would, but he felt a vibration against his hip and jumped, yelping, eventually pulling out a cell phone. He was surprised that he'd actually brought it – it was a running joke with him and Thea that he had a phone but never took it anywhere, and if he did he wouldn't answer it or it wouldn't be charged. Now, he stepped just outside, where he could still see the waiting room through the glass doors if the nurse came back. He answered the phone, hoping it wouldn't be Thierry telling him to come back.

"Eric!" a familiar woman's voice was on the other end, she sounded worried, with probably good reason – Eric thought bitterly – the hospital had probably phoned her, "what's wrong with Thea, honey? The hospital phoned to tell me you were there, but they didn't tell me much else, just that I was to come, and…do you need me to come down?"

he was silent for a few seconds, wondering what to say to her. His mother didn't know about the Night World – _Crazy, seen as how even Rosemund knows, _so he stuck to the story that he had told the doctors and the receptionist, "she was out with a friend, Holly, and hey got attacked. Thea got stabbed in the stomach, I don't know much more than that, they wont let me see her…"

"Oh Eric, I'm coming over, you shouldn't be alone right now…"

"It's alright, mom," he assured her, although he felt like begging her to come. He didn't want to worry her more than necessary, didn't want to put her in danger, and he certainly didn't want Rosemund begging him to tell her what _really _happened. Through the glass doors he could see the slightly overweight, brown haired nurse of about thirty or forty who had talked to him before, "but I have to go, the nurse has come back."

"Okay honey, but call me if you hear anything, anything at all," his mother sounded tearful as he clicked of the phone, not bothered if he was being rude, and sprinted through the doors before the nurse could go, thinking he'd left. He burst into the waiting room and she turned around, the look on her face changing from disappointment to surprise to amusement, then going back to sombre again.

"Ah, Mr. Ross," she said, directing him to a chair. He didn't like that at all. They generally told people to sit down when they were going to be given bad news. He half felt like standing up, hoping against hope that that could save Thea, but decided he wouldn't be able to stay standing up if there was something wrong with her, he sat down slowly. "Thea's going to be fine," he breathed out a sigh of relief and opened his mouth to speak. The nurse cut him off, "but she's lost one of the babies. It's actually surprising that the other one is fine, after that…" she trailed off, seeing Eric's expression as he stared at her, mouth open. He tried to close it painfully.

_Is she trying to tell me what I think she's trying to tell me? _He wondered dumbly, then shook his head quickly. Thea _couldn't _have been pregnant, she just couldn't have been. She would have _told _him, and she didn't _look _it.

"she was _pregnant?_" he asked incredulously.

"Well, yes, we assumed you knew," suddenly, the nurse pressed her hand to her mouth as though she'd spilled some terrible, terrible secret, "oh dear. Eric, how long have you and Miss Harman been going out?"

Dumbly, not knowing what she was getting out, he shrugged, "a year maybe."

"Oh good. She's five months pregnant, I can't see how she wouldn't have known," the nurse fretted, "twins. They should both have died, we're lucky really that the other has such willpower."

He stood up, paced the room a moment. He didn't know how he could grieve for a baby he hadn't even known existed, but he did, not quite as much as he wanted to see Thea though, "I need…I mean, can I…?"

The nurse nodded, "don't stress her too much though, she needs the rest," Eric translated this perfectly in his mind to "don't ask her why she didn't tell you." The nurse gestured for him to follow her and bustled along the halls so fast that he could barely keep up.

Along the way, he tried to figure out what to say to Thea.

* * *

Poppy drove faster than she had ever drove in her whole life, James was in the backseat, all three seatbelts securely fastened over him, groaning every time she went over a bump in the road. She couldn't help it – the road happened to be bumpy. "Oh goddess, Jamie, just hang on til we get to Thierry's mansion," she begged, not turning to face him, "I know it hurts, I can feel it, but _please _hang on."

She got no answer in reply, but he didn't argue so she thought that was probably a good thing.

"Let him be alright," she begged loudly, not knowing who she was begging, but wanting them to hear her, "I'll stop fighting, I'll sit at the mansion and never kill another person again. I'll do anything, but let him be okay…"

For the first time ever since they set off from the warehouse, Poppy came across a set of traffic lights that weren't on green, instead on red. She flew through it, swerving as to avoid the accidents that the lights were actually there to avoid. She didn't worry about getting a ticket; being technically dead, she didn't even have a licence, but Thierry could sort anything out for her. All that was important was James.

She wished he could have gone to a normal hospital like Thea and Holly, but they would have noticed that he had completely different blood, and when he needed to feed, the icky hospital food that Poppy had endured wouldn't be substantial.

He wasn't critical yet, she knew. He wasn't going to die on her in the next half an hour that it would take her to get to Thierry's mansion, but if the poison couldn't be stopped from entering his bloodstream straight to his heart, he would die. No question about it.

He'd saved her from death once, _and now, _she thought grimly, pressing her foot down even harder on the accelerator, _I'm going to save him. _


	13. Chapter 13

Ah. Suppose I'll write one more chapter before I go to bed..

**Person who didn't leave their name but emailed me: okay, this is what happened to Gillian. It isn't very good, because I wasn't going to actually write about Gillian until they found her, but I thought I might as well anyway, since you were asking. And Yes, I'm very sorry about Ash. I'll write a non-killing Ash version later if everyone prefers.**

Chapter 13.

Gillian wasn't sure where she was going, but an overwhelming sense told her to leave the club, it resounded in her brain, a little like a vision but more…fuzzy. She looked around for Morgead, or Poppy. Winnie. Anyone. But she didn't see them, knowing that this vision could be something important, she made her way through the masses of evil towards the door, an ugly werewolf leered at her, and she made it perfectly clear by the smirk on her face what she'd do if he got within three metres of her. He backed off.

The door was within her sights now, she tugged it open and found herself in the hallway. Again, her inner-voice was telling her to leave. Get out. And walk down the street and around the corner. She wondered if this was some kind of witch trick, if she was being bewitched into doing things against her own will, but she didn't wonder for long.

Even if she had wanted to stop herself, she wouldn't have been able to.

Around the corner, she turned, and came across a blue Toyota, she looked at it uncomprehendingly, until a voice whispered inside her brain _the keys are inside, you're gonna need the car to find Keller._

Momentarily, she allowed herself to think _Angel? _But it wasn't Angel, it was _her, _her own witch powers, telling her where to go. _Maybe I should wait for the others…_but she didn't want to lose this chance, so she slipped inside the car to find the keys there.

Why would anyone be stupid enough to leave their keys inside their car? Had it just been an accident? Or had it been fate? Had someone put the car there so she'd be stupid enough to drive right into a trap? Or…

_Just drive, Gillian._

She drove. Letting her mind lead her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jez Redfern was sitting at her dresser in her own room when she heard the scream. Thierry had let her and Delos go after a good berating of 'this is why you wild powers cannot leave the head quarters!' she had nodded and 'uh-huh'ed and 'Yes Sir!'d but she hadn't heard a word. He'd gone over the whole thing before with her.

Unfortunately, she hadn't listened then either.

Now, she didn't even have the fun of trying to think up ways to get out of the mansion, because everyone was coming back and the fun was over. For a while. She was sorry for Ash and Blaise and the others, but she knew that if she and Delos had been there, all that would have been avoided.

_But you weren't there, _she told herself, pulling a brush wildly through her red waves, _because Thierry wont let you out of this freakin' mansion. You're like a caged animal at the zoo, oh…here's the wild power! She's a special, you-only-see-once kind of creature, so we have to keep her locked up so she wont run away._

She started to wish she was only a normal half-breed, or normal as a half breed could be anyway, so that she could join in the fighting. She set her brush aside on the dressed and pulled her hair back from her face.

"Aaaggghhh!"

She reached for her wooden stake, which she had placed the brush next to, and was to the door in a split second. Maybe it was only Maggie, she screamed awful loud sometimes when Delos tickled her, or it could have been…

She changed her mind, the scream had been a terrified scream. She opened the door and threw herself out, slicing at the flesh on her own wrist with her stake as she ran. The high-pitched wail continued, and she started to realise what Keller's team had been talking about when they said 'volume torture' in all of their conversations involving Illiana.

It was Illiana's scream, and Jez felt that she'd rather have been staked again at the hands of Lilly Redfern than to listen to this.

Her room was on the middle floor, all the Wild Power's were. Thierry thought it would be better that way so that to attack them, the enemy would have to get through half the floors first, whether they came from the floor or from the skies.

And now, as she looked down, a recognisably vampiric figure was dragging a young girl over his shoulders across to the door, enduring that ear-piercing wail. Not even vampires were that tough.

_He must be deaf._

But how had he gotten through half the floors and grabbed Illiana before anyone had even _noticed? Poor security systems on Thierry's part, _she thought solemnly, _if they hadn't wanted to seduce her to the enemy side, then they could have just killed her and we'd be down a Wild Power…and he says it's dangerous to go outside?_

Oh well, it called for only one thing. Jez grabbed the banister just as Delos and Maggie came out of their room and witnessed it. She gave them a smile, a wave, then threw herself down…down…down…to the ground floor. She had gotten her vampire powers back, decided she'd be a better aid to the final battle – and to Daybreak – if she was a vampire rather than human. Now, she landed on both feet on the floor. Like a cat…

Down there, the piercing noise was unbearable, and Jez wanted desperately to cover her ears with her hands, but she needed them to fight, (her hands, not her ears.) the stake was firmly in one of them, and now she pounced. Illiana screamed and Jez gritted her teeth, "calm down, girl, it's me."

The vampire turned, now modelling a rather deep cut in his shoulder where Jez had pounced. Jez grabbed Illiana and pulled her back, pushing her towards the stairs. In that time, the vampire swiped Jez into him and held his own stake at her throat, "tell me where Galen Drache is, and I might not kill you."

"Oh great move, buddy," she told him snottily, "try to bargain with a Wild Power." She had wanted to take him with stakes and melee, but if he wanted to play dirty, she was willing to. She had already cut herself, the blood was running, and now the blue fire flowed through her veins and landed onto him, it spurred through him. And somehow this time, she managed to control it without destroying Thierry's house.


	14. Chapter 14

I am evil! **cackles **yep, after some of you people read this, life wont be worth comprehending for me. I'm going to have to go into hiding just to avoid you all…hmmm… I made Mary-Lynette happy, just not in a way y'all probably would have liked.

Maybe I should have killed David and Gillian off instead, no one seems to like them, but that would have made less sense. And sense is very hard to come by when you're me.

Everyone watched in blank amazement as Jez Redfern walked through the mansion, alight with blue flame, any enemy that got in her way was set alight, blue slivers of electricity lighting their bodies, dead on the floor. It almost wasn't fun, Jez thought, when it was so easy to win. But being that powerful, knowing what she could do… she looked at Thierry, who was frowning at her.

"Oh, come on Thierry!" she cried out, "they were going to get away with Illiana, it _didn't matter, _if I risked myself if she was gone. And I saved her, didn't I?"

Reluctantly, he smiled, "yeah, I guess you're right Jezebel," she glared at him and he quickly corrected himself, "Jez."

There was a thundering noise, and Jez turned, ready to fight, only to come face to face with Rashel and her team, looking forlorn, she didn't know what to say to them, so she turned away to see Lupe, running up the corridors, "Thierry!" she panted out, "We found out how they could get Illiana," a split second pause, "Slaughter. Some of our best agents: gone. They fought, but we weren't expecting it, and they used wooden bullets."

Thierry ran his hand through his hair, a look of anguish passing on his face, and Jez thought how unfair it was that a guy who couldn't have looked older than nineteen was having to make all these decisions, but he was hardly young, he'd been around thousands of years, had seen a lot of death "Guards…or…?"

"Guards were fought, the humans were shot or bled dry, any vampires were stakes. The upper floors are absolutely full of bodies," Lupe looked down, then looked back up, "it was mostly the soulmate suites, we're actually really lucky that they," she nodded her head towards Rashel's team, "had already left."

Thierry sighed, knowing perfectly well that their were still some soulmates left in their suites, "casualties?"

Lupe shook her head, "I couldn't tell you them all even if I knew, Thierry. It would take all day. Those left behind: Ina Travis, Amid Redfern, Leon Harman, Ayia Wian, Lia Wigan, Paine Roberts, Blair Loison and Mary-Lynette Carter," she paused, "and that was just the first floor."

* * *

She was surrounded with grassy plains as far as the eye could see, beautiful pink tulips in every field, and all of a sudden it came to her. The angel that had come for her, he hadn't been a dream, he had taken her to this beautiful place, where she would live forever more. Somehow she knew that she could go anywhere, at anytime, and it would all be wonderful.

And she knew this, because she was not just surrounded in fields, but also Ash, he was holding her in his arms, and she sighed contentedly before pulling away, then she got angry.

"I _told _you not to go!" she screamed, kicking his shin, and – although she didn't know whether or not you could hurt in the afterlife, he visibly flinched, "I told you!" kick, "and did you listen? Do you _ever _listen?" she kicked him again.

"Will you stop kicking me? I _thought _you'd be pleased to see me!" he yelled back, and she was – goddess she was – but that didn't mean she couldn't yell at her soulmate for doing the stupidest thing he'd ever done.

"I am pleased to see you, Ash," she smiled angelically, then kicked him, "I'd have been even more pleased to see you _alive!"_

"You know what they say, Die young, stay pretty," he said defensively, "I just didn't do the part about leaving a good-looking corpse," then his face contorted, "and what about you? If I didn't love you so much, _I'd _kick _you, _I _told _you not to do anything stupid!"

She stared at him in disbelief, he was calling her stupid? She wasn't the one who'd dived in front of a stake when she'd known she had a soulmate waiting for her back at Thierry's mansion, "what? Going to sleep and waking up dead is being stupid now?"

He laughed, and they kissed, and nothing else seemed to matter anymore. Death wasn't too bad, they were together, for all eternity. And it was beautiful, a wondrous place filled with _life…_Mary-Lynette grinned and corrected herself, _Okay, spirit…_ it hurt knowing she wasn't going to see her father, or Mark, or Ash's sisters ever again until the day they died, but she could live with that.

_You've really gotta stop coming up with these puns, Mare, _Ash whispered inside her head, _filled with life? You can live with that?_

She smiled and pressed her lips to his once more, _but I feel alive._


	15. Chapter 15

Ah…pure sop – or as close as I ever get. My heart has melted again. But it's Thea and Eric **'dabs eyes' **they're too sweet, same with Galen and Keller, but can't exactly give them sop at the moment. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this is going to be a very long story. Maybe 40-50,000 words lol.

She lay, staring at the boy who had just entered the room. From the look on his face, she could tell that a nurse had told him, he looked hurt beyond words, but the fact was that _she'd _only just been told, and she had no idea what she was going to do, especially if he didn't forgive her, they looked at one another in silence and the nurse fluffed Thea's pillow nervously, "I'll leave you two alone then…" she put her hand on Eric's arm as she left, "remember what I said."

The silence stretched on and on, then he smiled and it seemed to brighten the whole room, he stepped over, eyeing the spot where blood was seeping through her stomach and onto the bandage the nurses had put around her, then kneeled on the floor beside her, reaching for her hand. Blindly, she reached back and caught his, feeling the tears well up in her eyes, this was _Eric, _of course he would forgive her, it was a given. He looked as though he was going to cry, but it was from relief, not sadness. Leaning down slightly, he kissed her hand, "thank god, Thea… when they wouldn't let me in, I thought…I assumed…"

"I'm okay," she whispered, because she could barely raise her voice to beyond that; she hadn't been killed, no, but the agony in her stomach was enough to destroy her, even though they'd given her enough morphine, she'd really need some witch healing when she went back to the mansion, "But…I assume they told you?"

He nodded, his eyes clouding over, and he raked one hand through his hair, "I'm not going to ask, Thea…if you'd wanted to tell me, you would have."

She was overcome with irrational feeling that he was going to leave her, and she grabbed both his hands although she was he was her only link to life, "I didn't know! Goddess, Eric, you have to believe me, I didn't know! Wouldn't you have _known _through the soulmate link if _I'd _known?"

"I believe you," Eric said simply, and he did. Thea had never lied to him since he found out about the Night World, and even before that she'd only lied to save his life. Thea wasn't a good liar, she was no good at denying him, and he could see in her eyes that she was telling the truth.

Thea was quiet for a moment, just enjoying the feeling of being alive and being with her soulmate at the same time, Ash would never see Mary-Lynette again, Blaise would never be able to go out and find her soulmate like she threatened to do every time she saw Eric and Thea together, she wondered what Blaise would say if she could see her now, injured for trying to help and pregnant, "I never thought we'd be parents so young."

Eric smiled and Thea knew it wasn't an act, he really was happy, "you'll be good at it, we'll be fine."

"Oh yeah?" she laughed weakly in her best attempt to tease him, "you're the insane guy who attacks people with punch and fights spirits when the witch isn't there."

"and you're the crazy girl who walks straight into a warehouse with a bunch of vampires and werewolves even though you knew you could die, just to help."

"I'd do it all again, if it did some good. If Holly survives," Thea pressed a hand to his cheek, "would you check on her later? The nurses wont tell me anything, I think they think it'll upset me."

He was doubtful, "I'll try, but they wouldn't even tell me anything about _you _until just then, I don't know if they would tell me anything about her," what he failed to mention was that if they did and it was bad, he wouldn't tell her either.

She nodded weakly, and Eric had the feeling that she knew what he had left unsaid, he gestured to her stomach, which was still almost as flat as ever – no wonder he hadn't noticed – "what should we call it?"

"Well…" she paused, tried to smile, "I don't know how you'll feel about it, but I was thinking, Blaise for a girl," she shrugged, "I just think she would have liked that."

"Then lets hope it's a girl then," he said, kissing her hand again, he wanted to stand up and kiss her properly, but that might hurt her and just knowing she was alive was enough. Other people hadn't been so lucky.

* * *

Nurse Gladys Denton smiled as she walked into Thea Harman's room, seeing her and her boyfriend holding hands and talking. There had been a few moments there when the atmosphere was so thick, you could forget cutting it with a knife, you'd need a sword at the very least, she had half expected she'd need to get them to a soundproof room, "okay, visiting time's over, you need your rest, young lady."

Thea nodded and Eric got up, lingering just long enough to kiss her on the forehead, "don't leave me," she whispered, but the nurse heard it and he nodded, "I'm not going anywhere."

Sweet kids, seemed so in love. _Too much in love. _how could they possibly know what they wanted at only eighteen? She smiled again and lead Eric outside, "you can stay in the waiting room, or we have visitor rooms, until then, your mother is waiting in the waiting room for you." She turned to walk away, but Eric stopped her, "how's Holly?"

Holly…that poor girl. The thought of someone that young… she shook herself, "she's not doing too well, Eric, she's in a coma, and the doctors don't know if she's going to make it – that blade must have been contaminated or something, there's some very strong poison in her body right now," a very strange one too, if all her years working in hospital care had anything to say – she'd never seen anything quite like it in her life.

* * *

"Eric!" Mrs. Ross stood as soon as she saw her son coming towards the waiting room, she had Rosemund with her, "how is she?"

He started to ask 'what are you doing here?' but closed his mouth. He had told her not to come, yeah, but she was stubborn, it was where Rosemund got it from, and possibly him too, "she…she's fine…" he broke off, wondering whether or not he should tell his mother about the other thing, "Uh, mom, I have something to tell you," he jerked his head at Rosemund, making it perfectly clear what he wanted.

"Oh no," the little girl hissed, "you can't join the boy trekkers because you're a girl, you can't hear what's wrong with Thea because you're too young…when is everyone going to stop being so prejudiced?"

Mrs. Ross shrugged helplessly and Eric nodded, Rosemund loved Thea almost as much as he did, she wasn't about to give this up, "Uhh…okay, before you get mad that we didn't tell you before, we only found out today. Thea was five months pregnant, with twins, only one of them survived," his mother's jaw dropped, Rosemund was silent. A rare occasion for her.

"Oh Eric, I'm so sorry, but have you _thought _about this?" Mrs. Ross said at last, "what about Davis? Your future? Both of you…you're only eighteen…"

he _hadn't _thought about it. He hadn't had _time _to think about it, and it wasn't as though he could do anything anyway. They hadn't planned for Thea to get pregnant, but he wasn't upset about it. Sure, they had both gotten into Davis and had both accepted (in Thea's case, only after Blaise had accepted responsibility for the earlier expelling), and would be off in September as long as Thierry didn't need them, and he supposed they'd need a new place to live seeing as how the other soulmate couples wouldn't be happy with a baby screaming and…

Okay, so he supposed maybe he should have thought about it.

"We'll work something out," he struggled for the words, feeling desperate, "I can work nights," what as, he had no idea, "or, one of us could just not go…"

"Eric," his mother's expression tendered, "you know me and the rest of the family will help in anyway we can, maybe you and Thea can organize your classes so that one of you is always at home," she paused, "but if we need to get a childminder, or if you want me to look after the child," she smiled, "we'll help."

Rosemund stared at him still, "Goddess," she'd picked up the habit of saying Goddess from Thea, "is the kid going to be like Thea?" he translated this in his mind to, "is the baby going to be a witch."

"how is Eric supposed to know?" Mrs Ross rolled her eyes.

He smiled at Rosemund and shrugged, "It's going to be a Harman, so I assume so."


	16. Chapter 16

Keller heard the news through the bars of her cell, they weren't going to beat her for a while now, she was sure of it. To hurt her anymore would be to kill her, and they said it themselves, she was no good to tem dead, even though it was quickly proving that she was no good to them alive either. They thought she was knocked out, earlier, they had come to give the rest of the Drache family something to send them to sleep, but they hadn't given it to Keller. They hadn't known she was conscious seen as she couldn't even gather the strength to keep her eyes open, but now she heard every word.

"Ma'am, we went to the Circle Daybreak mansion intending to find Galen Drache, as you commanded."

"Yes. So where is he? The sooner we can get this whole family out of the way, the better." The female vampire's voice was impatient, she obviously didn't like to be kept waiting.

"well, we went to the Circle Daybreak headquarters and we infiltrated the top half, our soldiers killed almost every guard and the humans, most of the vampires and witches weren't there. We don't know why, probably looking for his family."

"And…?"

"we got to Galen Drache's floor, but Illiana the Wild Power blocked our way, we thought it might be best if we took her too."

"So, _have you got Galen Drache or NOT?"_

"No ma'am."

"And why the hell not? I should kill you right now for disobeying my orders, I told you to get _him, _not the Wild Powers, I don't _care _about the wild powers."

"Illiana started screaming," the other vampire went on, and Keller found herself straining to listen. She knew how painful Illiana's screaming could be, she had probably made all the vampires go deaf, "And Jez Redfern heard her. We don't know how it happened, one moment Rich was holding a stake to Redfern's throat, and the next second she was slaughtering us _all_ single-handedly_." _He paused for emphasis, "we're lucky we got out alive…"

"Yes, lucky," the vampire who looked like the Jez Redfern in question made her voice a purr, "Lucky I'm not going to kill you. Do you think I give a _damn _about your miserable lives? I need GALEN DRACHE – do I need to burn that into your thick skull before you understand?"

"Uh, no ma'am. We'll get him next time, ma'am."

"Yes, do, and bring my niece – that bitch Jez Redfern. It's about time she and I had a little…chat."

There were the sounds of footsteps against the heavy metal this building seemed to be constructed from, and Keller quickly closed her eyes lest she be found eavesdropping and…punished…

She only wished there was someway to give this information to her friends.


	17. Chapter 17

David didn't understand how Gillian had just…disappeared…there was a team out looking for her, not as big as the team looking for Keller, granted, but a rather large team nonetheless, mostly made up of witches. Seen as there were only _three _Harman girls left now: Illiana, Gillian and Thea, she could be counted as royalty almost as much as Keller, and still they hadn't found her.

He had to wonder whether the same people who had snatched Keller could possibly have gotten to Gillian, whether they were trying to entirely stop the hierarchy among these groups and send them into turmoil. Was Thierry going to be the next to go? But that thought was useless. Thea was the most powerful and most trained witch from the three of them, and Illiana was _the _Witch Child. Thea was just lying in a hospital somewhere by now, easy to snatch up, and Illiana.

WAIT! He bounded up, Illiana _had _been captured before Jez Redfern had saved her…

There was a soft tapping on his door and David almost felt like pretending he was asleep, but the knocker just persisted, "Ugh. Come in."

The door opened slowly and Maggie Neely popped her head in, "Meeting in five minutes," she told him, and – when he groaned and pushed his face into the pillow – continued, "not just about Keller and Galen, we have a lot of things to discuss. Holly and Illiana and Keller and _Gillian," _

At Gillian's name, he rolled out of bed, reaching for a T-shirt, Maggie averted her eyes as he put it on, "Okay, lets go."

* * *

The meeting was being held in the living room, Thierry standing in the middle as everyone else lounged about, Thierry clapped his hands for attention and everyone went quiet – there wasn't a single person talking, "Okay, I'll have to start with Holly and Thea. We all know how James is," he gestured to the vampire sitting on the sofa, almost perfectly healed again, "Eric called and Thea is fine, although they've found out she's pregnant."

There was silence for a moment, no one was quite sure whether this was good news or whether it meant they were going to all have to go charging down to the hospital to look after her. After a moment, James hissed, "my God, I'll kill him…"

Poppy hit him playfully, "no you wont. It wasn't just him, you know Jamie, didn't your mommy ever teach you about the birds and the bees?"

He pretended to think, "No, maybe you co…"

"SO!" Thierry continued diplomatically, "Thea is fine. Holly on the other hand… Eric told me that she has some kind of weird poison working inside her body. We sent her to a human hospital because witches don't _have _blood that would be strange to humans, so the only thing I can think of is that she was in the process of being changed."

"Blair," Morgead nodded from the other side of the room, "he must have talked her into becoming a vampire…before he died."

A few people noticed Rashel and Quinn share a glance full of anxiety, but no one concentrated on it.

"we don't know, but obviously we need to get some witches over there. I'm not talking anything dangerous, you'll just be her 'sisters,' Winnie, Jeannette and Poppy," he turned to Poppy, "I know you're not a full witch, but you know enough."

She nodded, although she didn't look amazingly happy to be leaving her soulmate, she grabbed James' hand tightly.

"Next, there's the matter of Keller and Gillian's disappearances," he frowned, looking in turn between David and Galen, as though he didn't want to say anything in front of them for fear they might go yodelling to the door looking for their soulmates, "I don't think we can split our resources like we did the last time. Security was breached in head quarters and that is not acceptable. Many lives were the cost, as you all know. And I doubt the two incidents are related since we already know the reason for…"

"I disagree," said David quietly, he had been silent through most of the meeting but now every eye was on him, "I think that its very related. They want the hierarchy from the shape shifters dead so the shape shifters are free to follow the dragon. Maybe they wasn't the witch hierarchy dead so the witches are free to do whatever. You Night People fuss over the Harman's so they must be something important, Gillian's gone and someone has _already _tried to take Illiana. Grandma Harman is dead, and Hunter Redfern tried to kill Aradia in Delos' kingdom not so long ago," he paused, letting himself breathe, "In fact, the only Harman females we have right now are Thea and Illiana," he paused.

Thierry was thoughtful, they all were, but eventually he shook his head, "that might be the Night World's plan eventually, David. We can't overlook the facts, but the incidents mustn't be related. If these people had Gillian, they _would _have killed her, _you're _not a Harman, so they have no reason to lure you to her. Have you felt her die?"

"No," David admitted finally.

"then they must be unrelated events, right now, all we can hope for is that a lead will come up on one of them and…"

The room exploded with glass and brick and there was screamed panic as they all tried to get the humans out of the way. David felt himself being pulled up by Quinn and practically thrown to the other side of the room while those able to fight stood next to the open window.

"Two security breaches," Jez complained, "are you _sure _it's safer here for us Wild Powers, Thierry?" she was boasting big time after she kicked these guys asses.

* * *


	18. Chapter 18

Haven't updated for a while, apologies, but now I'll be making up for it lol. So, next chapter…

The glass in the windows exploded, sending shards of it around the living room, that wasn't the most concerning thing right now though, not even coming close. It also broke the wooden supports that held the windows, and these went flying – in a place where there were a large percentage of vampires, but this, too, did not rival the biggest problem.

The biggest problem was that there were now Night People jumping through those windows into the living room, attacking the Daybreakers, who were largely outnumbered.

Galen felt himself changing before he even tried to start; he wanted to make these people pay, for _whatever _they'd done to Keller. It didn't even matter if this was a completely unrelated group, just as long as they were Night People.

Thierry saw the change however, out of the corner of his eye from where he was battling hand to hand with a werewolf. He wasn't a fighter, had promised Hana not to kill, but this seemed to be a special occasion as he wore a savage expression of hate and ferocity, Hannah was behind him, darting frightened looks left and white, a wooden stake in one hand, something that looked like a silver letter opener in the other hand. Thierry stopped fighting long enough to bark out orders to a few of the people closest to him, "Quinn, Rashel, Delos, cover Galen!"

Strangely, that was what Keller always said too, he remembered, generally using different names, _Nissa, Winnie…cover Galen! _The memory stopped him changing for a moment, just long enough for the two vampires and vampire hunter to vault over to him, Delos was dragging an auburn-haired girl after him.

"don't even think about fighting," Delos warned, cutting himself with the stake he always kept in the pocket of his jeans, even though it bulged out. Delos had never gotten used to wearing 'normal' clothes, and now he looked as though he wished he was back in the Dark Kingdom, but he wore an expression of feral annoyance, a big show of emotion for him, he cut himself with the stake, "I'll knock you out with the blue fire, if I must. And you will never win against that."

He wasn't being arrogant in his comment; he was just being realistic; if it was that easy for _one _leopard shape shifter to kill a Wild Power or fight against their powers then the enemy would have destroyed them long ago.

Galen kept right on shifting, he told himself that his excuse was that he needed to be able to run if Delos or the others got killed. In reality, he wasn't sure whether he'd be able to contain himself when a Night Person got close enough, he might just leap and rip out their throat, demanding the second beforehand that they tell him where Keller was…

_You were meant to be something gentle, _Keller hadn't thought he'd heard that thought as he changed to leopard for the first time, but he had, and now he wondered what she'd think if she knew he was contemplating killing when there was no good reason, just killing to take out his anger of losing Keller on _someone…_

No, unless they came to fight him, he just couldn't do it.

"Get ready," Quinn told the others solemnly, "I think they've spotted Galen, or maybe Delos if this is another set of Night Worlders'."

Galen felt every muscle in his body tense, became ready for a fight if there was any need, but the air around Delos was already crackling, and Rashel was drawing her weapon, Quinn had a stake in his hand.

It was very unlikely that he'd even _need _to fight.

The room was a mass of blood, and to keep himself from jumping on the people Rashel, Quinn and Delos were attacking around him, he searched to make sure his friends were okay.

Poppy, a solemn frown distorting her features, was holding James behind her as she used her free hand to pummel a stake into a vampire's stomach. Thierry, alone against a couple of werewolves now, Hannah trying to help while he attempted desperately to keep her back. David and Illiana, not fighters, keeping as far away from the chaos as possible, weapons in their hands but being shaking. Morgead ripping through the crowds of shape shifters, screaming the name "Jez!" Galen followed his direction to see Jez Redfern, surrounded in the blue fire, but there being too many people around her for it to work effectively.

Galen watched as the blue fire faded out and the Night People all leaped for her, he quickly changed back to his human form and yelled out to the closest, and least active, person, "Quinn! They've got Jez!"

Quinn looked over his shoulder, towards Jez, and cursed, "Oh shit…" then he was vaulting over towards the Wild Power, Galen tried to follow, but was stopped by Maggie's firm grip around his wrist, "don't even think it," she told him, "we don't want to give them _two _of the things they want."

She was right, in a way, if this was the same group who wanted them, which it probably was, because normally Circle Daybreak didn't have _half _as much activity, then for them to get Galen too would be just handing the world over on a plate. But, if they took Jez, that would happen anyway.

_Stay, Galen, _he told himself from a little voice inside his head; _if they catch you, then there'll be no need for them to keep Keller alive any longer…_

But it was hard, as he watched Quinn barrel through the Night People to help Morgead, for Jez to be taken anyway, kicking and screaming. He felt as though he was failing his friends.

_There's nothing you can do, you need to stay here for Keller, _but telling himself didn't help.

It didn't help as the brute holding Jez flung himself out of the window, to see Morgead's face contort in anger as he leaped after him and his soulmate. And it didn't help as he watched a stake come down…down…and into a body that he couldn't see the owner of.

**I've decided I need motivation to continue this story. Not necessarily GOOD motivation, you don't have to say you like it or anything if you didn't lol, but could someone please review so I _do _know what you think of it? Thanks and bye-bye for now :D**


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay, please, **please, **please, **please, **please review, and I will love you forever, which might not be good for you, oh heck. Please still review. I don't care if you don't like it – well, I do, but I don't care if you tell me you don't like it – I just want opinions!**

**Thank you.**

**Ash**

"Darling niece, how nice of you to pay us a visit," the vampire laughed as Jez struggled furiously with the thugs holding her wrists. Morgead snarled at them, but that didn't do any good, one of them gave him a well-placed punch in the nose while two others held him. It bled, and Jez shook her head, hoping he'd get the message, _oh Morgead, please don't do that again._

_I wont, _he promised, his eyes locked on hers, _why is it always this way when we get together with your family?_

She bit back the temptation to cry, remembering Lilly Redfern, instead she turned to face her aunt, she didn't say a word, just looked at her with those large, dangerous Jez Redfern eyes. It was enough to make most of her enemies turn away in fear and run yodelling away, but not for this enemy. _This _enemy reached out one perfectly manicured hand and slapped Jez.

_Jez, are you okay? _Morgead's voice vibrated through her brain, she could only laugh. She didn't even try to hold it back, "was that supposed to _hurt" _she gasped out, "I've been tickles more painful than that."

"Really?" the vampire smiled and slapped her again. This time, it wasn't feather-light, this time, Jez felt her eyes being raked out of their sockets, and looked down, she was holding a perfectly small, serviceable stick. Jez had started having blood meals again, she was potentially a full vampire. It _hurt._

"You bitch!" she cursed, lunging for the woman, the two thugs holding her kicked her legs and she went flying, hitting her face off the wooden floors, she struggled to get up, but a foot held her in place. The vampire's foot. She wriggled weakly then went still.

_JEZ, JEZ, JEZ, _the voice was in her brain, and she was used to his excited outbursts, _JEZ, ARE YOU OKAY!_

_Yes, Morgead, I'm just not going to fight a losing battle, _she told him irritably. She thought she had a good right to be irritated. She didn't like being wedged from her home with her soulmate, to be dragged only to die. Most likely.

"Tell me where Galen Drache is hiding, and I'll let you live," the vampire hissed. And Jez felt a tremor of surprise go through her body. She didn't know Galen was at Thierry's mansion? Did she think that when the last two raids had happened, Galen hadn't been there? it didn't matter, she wasn't going to tell her that he was just so that she and her thugs could go there and kill everyone she loved. Everyone except Morgead, she supposed they'd kill him there, along with her.

_I'm sorry, _she told him, knowing he'd know what she meant.

_It's not your fault; they wont let you and me go even if you did tell him he was there. it's not your fault._

"I wouldn't tell you, you bitch," she hissed, and the vampire gestured for a woman with raven black hair to step forward, "confine her power. She'll talk later."

The witch came forward, touched Jez's arm, and she was too tired to fight.

"the other one might talk?" someone suggested, the vampire threw them an evil glare.

"No. the other one will _die, _maybe that will convince my dear niece to cooperate."

It almost did, until Jez felt the woman staring at her arm sigh in exasperation, "I can't block the power, ma'am."

"you what?" the vampire shrieked.

"I can't block the power. Ma'am." The witch repeated, almost in fear. Jez smiled. She could take them all out – right now, if only she had something that cut…

"Fine," the vampire glared at her niece, "take him to the torture cells. But I swear to you, Jezebel, if you even _try _to use your power, my guards will know about it, and they'll make sure you never see your precious _soulmate _ever again." She made the word soulmate sound like a curse.

Jez could only watch helplessly as Morgead was dragged away.

_I love you, _he whispered as he was dragged away, _but do what you think is right. _You _are the only one who needs to get out of here alive._

_I'll get out of here alive. With you. _She promised. She hoped it was true.

Keller awoke to screams echoing down the hallway; she couldn't open her eyes, it was as though they were soldered together, the pain was exhilarating but terrible. It filled her with adrenaline and dread both at the same time.

"Keller? is that you? Goddess, you're a mess."

It wasn't the right time to be mentioning Keller's now questionable beauty, she turned her face up in something like a frown and snarled, only to be confronted by red hair and a beautiful face. At first, Keller was certain it was the vampire who had been holding her. Then she realised.

"Jez? Goddess, we need to get you out of here!"

"No kidding," Jez smiled, but her face was covered in bruises and her lip was slit, in another room, Keller could hear a male voice screaming out. Morgead. He must have followed Jez to his own death. Now, Keller could see the pain behind the smile, "you, me, Morgead, we need to get out of here," she looked towards the Drache's for the first time, "I suppose they can come too."

"we've tried," Keller sighed, indicating the chains around her hands and legs, "but I can't shape shift, and I don't suppose they let you come here without suspending the blue fire somehow?"

"Nope," Jez shook her head, "they couldn't restrain me."

"Well, that's great, that's…" at Jez's expression, Keller stopped dead, "why do I get the feeling this isn't good?"

"Keller. Morgead's my soulmate," she shrugged sadly, "I suppose you knew that, heh. But I love him and _they _have him, they say if I use my power, they'll kill him. It's the only reason he's alive right now, because I agreed."

Keller understood, she would have done the same thing in her shoes. She wouldn't have risked Galen for anything, even the whole world. And maybe the people who held Keller didn't even have the intention of killing Jez, she was her niece after all…and they seemed…fanatical…about having as much power as possible. _They may try to use Jez._

"How did they get you, anyway?" she asked carefully.

"Oh yeah, you don't know anything about what has been happening, do you?" Jez asked carefully, at Keller's shake of the head, she continued, "Galen's been hysterical, obviously, and Thierry sent out two teams to find you. None of them succeeded, obviously. Delos, me and the humans got left behind, along with half of the rest of Circle Daybreak, one team was sent to spy and find possible locations – and from the quad of Winnie, Poppy, Morgead and Gillian, Gillian went missing," she lowered her head, "the other one went straight to a known warehouse and attacked. That wasn't such a good idea, it was empty – of you, I mean – there were a _lot _of guards. Me and Delos were trying to escape, so were Eric and David."

"why Eric?" Keller interrupted softly.

"I'm coming to that. Anyway, Ash was killed, so was Blaise, and a few other people who were weren't as close to," Jez ducked her head, "Thea called Eric to give him Ash's last words to Mary-Lynette, that's how we knew something real bad was happening. Thea was stabbed through the stomach, while she was pregnant with twins, one of them died. James was stabbed too, but he's fine now, and Holly was practically gutted in what we think was half-form where Blair was trying to change her."

It was a lot to take in, and Keller struggled over it for a while with her dying brain cells, then she asked the most intelligent question she could, given the circumstances, "what do you mean, _think_? Why not ask Blair?"

"see, Galen hadn't been going out to find you because we wouldn't let him, he instead had to rule his people to do that for him, they sent a raid party to get him. Most of the top floors were killed, including Blair…a few other people…Oh, and Mary-Lynette, Illiana stopped them from getting Galen, and I stopped them from getting Illiana. This is all _after _Thierry caught us sneaking out and yelled at us. A day later, there was a second raid, and they got me. Obviously, they didn't get Galen. Because he's not here."

"Oh Goddess," Keller had to gulp down a load of bile in her throat, it threatened to choke her, "all that…because of _me?"_

"Actually," Jez said, looking thoughtful, "all that because of _Galen, _he wont give himself up, and he wont stop us looking for you," she blinked, "not that we want to, but if he married…say…Illiana instead, you'd die. None of us want that, I'm not saying that, but technically, it's all because of Galen."

Keller had to laugh watching Jez dig a hole for herself, but it hurt to laugh, it hurt even to smile, feeling as though her face was cracking wide open.

"Jez, do you happen to…?"

"Know where we are? I know _exactly _where we are. Warehouse, Knight Stock Road, just off Vegas. But that won't help. Neither of us has a cell phone."

Both girls sighed and leaned back against the stone of the cell.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	20. Chapter 20

**Jalena: I'm glad you like the story :D I _was _trying to break off the parts with different characters but the only thing I could find to use was a row of X's, the stars don't work for some reason, the spaces where I haven't got anything is where I've tried something that doesn't show up on fanfiction – I'll correct it all later, I promise! And thanks for the review :D!**

**Can't do Thierry and Hannah very well – I probably can't do any couple very well :P but these are the hardest, so ignore the nonplussing parts.**

Thierry didn't seem to be able to breathe. He attempted to suck in huge gasps of air and call it breathing, but it didn't quite work. He was having trouble even thinking.

His house wasn't safe for anyone anymore. They had to get everyone out; if security could be breached twice, who was to stop it happening a third time? Jez Redfern was gone, and they didn't even have Morgead to tell them whether she was dead, and he was the only one who would know with the soulmate link.

He walked into his and Hannah's bedroom, dropped something paper onto the wooden desk that he used when other people – namely Quinn and Rashel – decided that his office was the perfect place for arguing and making up. Hannah was sitting on the bed in the thin cascades of blue velvet, but now she looked over – eyes wide, a flash of compassion sparked between them, but then her eyes went downward, towards the paper, and the connection was severed.

"What's that?" she asked softly and Thierry knew she probably already realised what it was. It was the thing he had been talking about every day for the past week since the first breach. He threw her the paper and she looked down at it blindly.

"Medicine Rock, Montana," she gulped, and Thierry saw a tear forming in her eye. He felt as though his heart was breaking just to see her start to cry, but he tried to remind himself it was for the best. They _would _see each other again, but she had to get out of the danger zone. He wouldn't be her death.

Not this time.

"No!" she screamed, throwing the paper back at him, he flinched, "you are not sending me home! _Everyone _here is in danger, what's so special about _me!_"

"What's so special about you is that you're absolutely fantastic, and I love you," Thierry stepped forward, putting his hands on her shoulders, "but I'm also sending everyone else with a family home too."

She looked up at him, "everyone else _with a family!" _her voice reached several octaves higher than it normally would have, "what about those _without _a family! What about the _others?_ What about _you!_ You'll all be staying here! And I want to stay!"

"Eric's already at home with his mother," he spoke over the top of her screams, and she beat his chest with small fists, wanting him to listen to her. He was – goddess he was – but if he paid attention, she'd talk him round,_ not this time, Hannah, _he thought to himself, "I'm sending David back with the news Jill had disappeared, human authorities looking for her can't _hurt, _might not be able to _help _either, but… Kestrel and Rowan are going back to Briar Creek, Maggie will be back with her parents. Illiana, Delos and Galen are getting sent to Galen's mansion –"

"I don't _care _where they're going! _I _want to stay _here! _And if you send me away, Thierry, Goddess knows I'll just come back! You can't send me –"

"- Where they'll be safer," Thierry went on, "once Winnie, Poppy and Jeannette are going to the hospital still to help Holly they'll be going to Galen's – except Jeannette, who will be going hoeme, but James, Quinn, Rashel and Nissa are all going to Galen's mansion straight away, where any available shape shifters and –"

"-Will you _listen_ to _me, _for _one minute? I-"_

" – All my guards will be going to protect the three, where _maybe _they'll be safe. I'll be staying here, of course…"

"_I'm not going anywhere without you!" _Holly finally got her words out interrupted, and Thierry stared at her. This was practically submission. Hannah – his Hannah – was agreeing to go, if he went. Of course, he couldn't do that, but at least it was a start, she must realise she was in danger.

"If I went with you, you wouldn't be safe," Thierry said simply, and it was enough. They both stopped shouting and collapsed against one another, Hannah sobbing onto his chest. It had been a hard week for both of them, full of self-hate and loss. And now they both cried, tears mingling as one.

"You wont be safe here though," Hannah whispered against his chest, hanging on as though he was her last rope to safety, "they'll raid again, you know they will…and with less guards, they'll" she choked on her words, "they'll _kill _you!"

"Maybe so," he nodded, "but I'd rather that than them killing you."

"We die together," Hannah whispered, so softly, "we live together, we die together. If you…If you died, I'd rather die myself. I'm not as patient as you, I can't live my life without my soulmate, and you _wouldn't _be coming back."

Thierry nodded, but not in complete agreement, Hannah went on, "come home with me. My mother liked you in that few minutes you talked before you got claustrophobic and went out to the car," she smiled, remembering the moment, "and she knows _everything _about you. She'll be glad to have you there."

"They'll look for us there, Hannah, you know they will."

"I know," she murmured to his shirt.

He thought now of what a good job it was he took the liberty of buying plane tickets to Europe too, some might call him a coward, but with his oath not to kill, there wasn't a lot he could do, and – despite what anyone might think of him – he had waited for eternity to live a life with Hannah by his side, and he wasn't about to have it cut short.

"Phone your mother, and Chess if you want, Hannah," he told her softly, "I'll treat you all to Europe. Maybe, just maybe, they wont recognize us there."

she grinned, her tears disappearing almost instantly, and poked him, laughing, "the amount of times you've been there? I doubt it!"

he realised how quickly she'd turned off the waterworks, stopped screaming and yelling as soon as he complied.

"why, you little _sneak,_" he hissed, cut short by Hannah's lips on his.


	21. Chapter 21

The Drache's mansion wasn't quite as huge as Thierry's, but that was okay, for the amount of time Thierry had lived he really should have owned the whole country, possibly the continent, by now, so the Draches could expect to have a smaller mansion. Nine limos had all left from Thierry's mansion at the same time, three of then carrying Delos, Galen and Illiana, as well as some of Thierry's guards, it was Thierry's theory that then the Night World wouldn't have as much likelihood of following the car Galen was in. The rest carried solely circle daybreak members who were willing to protect him with their lives. At the mansion, a few dozen-shape shifters already waited, all trained in combat.

And still Galen didn't care. He was numb, Jez and Morgead were both gone, could only be presumed as dead – the Night World had essentially won. What if they felt that gave them a chance to kill Keller? he couldn't cope with that, and now Circle Daybreak was being split up, all because he had been foolish enough to let Keller go into the hospital.

_Let Keller? You think you could have stopped her? _His mind argued with him, but it was no good. He felt somehow that he should have _known _what was going on. Now, he wished more than anything that he'd argued that day at the hospital, said he _wasn't going _to be backup. She would never have been taken away from him.

Even now, now that he had time to accept it, he couldn't stop the tears.

This was _his entire fault._

* * *

David sat opposite Gillian's parents, next to his own. He had been sent home in a taxi and hadn't done a single thing to make himself look better. Getting out of the taxi, he had seen Tanya, a year older than the last time he'd seen her, her long hair glossy and brown. Now, she didn't do a thing for him, he realised how much prettier Jill was, how much nicer, how much…

"What's wrong, David?" she asked in a tone somewhere between malicious and gentle, he didn't understand how anyone could have such mixtures, but Tanya was the exception for that rule, a figurative witch, he walked up his drive, preparing to phone Gillian's parents from there and ask them whether he could come over, "Gillian and you broke up?"

He stiffened and she saw it. She laughed, "awww, poor Davie."

"She hasn't broke up with me," he said in a voice barely on the brink of audibility, "she's been kidnapped," without a word; he walked into his own house and phoned the Lennox's.

"What's happened to our daughter?" Mrs. Lennox asked, so calmly it was infuriating, as he tried to hold back tears, "if you've had an argument and you've left her somewhere, David…"

The Harman's had made both sets of parents believe that it was perfectly okay for Gillian and David to take off to Las Vegas to stay with her supposed distant cousins. Okay, so they weren't 'supposed' but if the Lennox and Blackburn families had been of their right minds, they wouldn't have allowed it. Ash, James, Thea and Illiana were not the most responsible types, they would have been thinking. They thought they were going to stay with a twenty-four year old cousin and her mother.

"We…" he paused, speechless, forgetting what he was supposed to say. Thierry had gave him his whole script on index cards, which he'd memorized in the car, now he entirely forgot and the words rushed out in torrents, " we were walking, sight-seeing, you know? I mean, we'd been in Vegas for a long time, but there's always something more to see, and…I'm not sure what happened. But we must have been mugged because by the time I woke up, my money was gone and… and…"

"David," Mrs. Lennox said, "where…is…Gillian…?"

He clenched his eyes shut, and – although he was lying – he felt the same sadness, "by the time I'd woke up, she was gone. We looked all over for her, but she wasn't in Vegas…"

Before him, the two parents seemed to internally collapse.

* * *

They had had to sneak into the hospital room. First, Eric had gotten them into Thea's, who was up for a little visitation; she was the medical witch of them all and helped them figure out what to do when they got in, "If she has been half changed," Thea said, raking through the bag of supplies they had brought with them and trying not to wince as her stomach muscles contracted, "then you'll need to use as Isis blood stone and combine all three of your energy's, it's the only thing powerful enough to even bring her out of the coma, never mind heal her."

None of them had even known that, and as they stood talking, Poppy realised what a terrible medical team they made, probably no better than the human system, they just weren't _interested _in that stuff. They had used their witch powers for combat, apart from Poppy, who just used her psychic powers and only vampiric powers in battle.

They stayed a little while until it was dark, inquiring about Thea's health, exclaiming about how she wasn't fat – or in their words, 'showing' – and berating Eric on how James was going to kill him. Then they left, supplies in hand, to sneak into Holly's room.

"Stay in Thea's room," Winnie hissed, stepping outside and muttering something underneath her breath, orange witch fire formed in her hands and she aimed, hitting the nearest security camera, "come on," then she lead the way to Holly's room, shutting the door behind her.

It had been easy, but they were going to have to work quickly.

"Okay, we'll all concentrate the stone on the whole in her chest, right?" Jeannette asked nervously, the other two nodded, and each put a finger on the stone, which they placed on her chest, it seemed to be going alright, until all of a sudden.

Beeeeeeeeeeeep, Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, Beeeeeeeeeeeeep.

It was a sound they all knew from medical programs. Her heartbeat was going haywire, "what's happening!" Poppy screamed at Winnie, who was the best witch of the three.

"I don't know!" Jeannette screamed back, "but I think we should all take our hands of this thing!"

They weren't bothered about noise, and now Winnie yelled, "one…two…three…!"

They all leapt off the stone, only to hear a beep that never ended, buzzing through the room.

"We've killed her," Poppy whispered as the door burst open and in shot five uniformed security guards.


	22. Chapter 22

Jalena: yep, I didn't know you could do that on fanfiction, it only took me three weeks to find it lol:D

_Oh shit. _this was bad, very bad. In none of her medical explanations had Thea outlined that Holly could die from the Isis Bloodstone, and now they were being held in the security office of the hospital, waiting for the police to come. Eric had walked into them on the way to meet his mother and had protested their innocence, only to almost get dragged off himself, until the Security Guards had realised they had no reason to hold him since that just because they were friends didn't mean he was involved.

Now, Winnie looked left and right, to Poppy and Jeannette, who were sitting either side of her. Both of them looked upset and scared. Upset because Holly was gone, scared because they couldn't just kill the human authorities and get the hell out of there, they had to _act _human, and that might mean going to prison for a very long time.

All three girls watched as the police officers clasped cuffs around their wrists and seemed somewhat detached from the whole situation. They watched as though from somewhere else as they were searched for weapons, where numerous pencils, some sticks and some other wooden instruments were pulled from them. They all seemed somewhat confused, Winnie heard one of the women officers mutter "must be vampire fanatics, or something."

_Or something_, Winnie agreed as they were dragged off towards the cars after being arrested on suspicious of euthanasia. Jeannette was crying in long loud bursts, Poppy tried arguing with them "look, officer, we sneaked in, but that's all we did! I swear it! We just wanted to see our friend!" Winnie felt strangely at peace while the police officers calmed Poppy with a stern "do you realise how much trouble you're in, girl? The security guards _heard _you shout that you'd killed her."

When they finally got to the police station, they were allowed one call each. "Call Thierry!" Poppy called out as Winnie got the first call, "we don't have any money for lawyers!"

She let the phone ring a long time, then it occurred to her. Thierry and Hannah had left for Europe already, he wouldn't be home, and they had no way to contact him. Poppy phoned her father, who was aware that she wasn't dead, it wasn't until it was Jeannette's turn that Winnie had her inspiration, "phone Galen," she hissed, "he has money too!"

Jeannette had her one minute call, in which Galen promised to get them the best lawyers and that he'd send someone to post bail. Winnie could hear his voice and she closed her eyes in relief. She knew there was a reason she'd always liked him, other than the fact he made her best friend and boss happy.

* * *

Poppy stared across at the sergeant who was interviewing her, he pushed towards her a few packets of powder that had been in the bag they had been carrying, "do you recognize these?"

She didn't see the point in lying; she _had _been carrying it, besides, what was wrong with that? "Yes."

He seemed taken aback, she hadn't said what he'd expected, "you know that even if it proved not to be Euphanasia, we can hold you because of the drugs?"

It dawned on her than he thought she was carrying drugs, she felt the temptation to laugh, but not even she could laugh about this, she played dumb, "Oh! You thought I was carrying whatchamacallit? Cocaine! They're herbs."

His frown deepened, and he pushed it towards his companion, "have this identified," he turned back to Poppy, "so, what kind of herbs are they?"

"I don't know what they're _called!" _she said, and that part was true, "I brought them for Thea, she's a new age nut, and she works with herbs. She wanted some to make her relax and help the pain… she doesn't believe in using drugs – like…medical drugs, I mean. She doesn't believe in bad drugs either," she tried to dig herself out of the whole. It didn't quite work.

"So, why," the Police officer continued when she'd given up, "did you _still _have the herbs after you'd visited her room?"

"because, because," Poppy looked around the room quickly for some inspiration, there was nothing. But her head showed her images of a measuring cylinder, and eventually she got it, "we'd bought too much, because I don't know anything about herbs, she said if there was too much there, she'd use it all and that wouldn't be good. We only gave her enough for one night."

_Thank you brain, _she commended herself. At least if he went to search Thea's room she would hopefully have enough sense to lie for them. Now, the police officer looked pissed off, and he leaned across the desk.

"Poppy. You seem like a nice kid, scared, but nice, and I want to help you. Maybe it's true what you said about the drugs – herbs, but think a moment, that doesn't change the fact that you snuck into a hospital room and was heard shouting 'we've killed her' now, would you like to explain that comment?"

"We heard a huge beep, like she was dead. Well, she was dead, so it was exactly like that," Poppy felt tears down her face, but she got no sympathy, "and we were there, we weren't doing anything, just talking to her, but I got so scared when I heard the beep I just kind of screamed it out, maybe it was our fault, but…"

The man was stern, "Poppy. Why. Did. You. Kill. Holly?"

"We didn't mean to!" she burst out, "I don't know what happened, but goddess, we didn't _mean _to!"

"Sir," a woman came running through the doors, completely ignoring Poppy, "we've just looked the girl up, officially, she died of pancreatic cancer a year ago!"

Poppy's head fell to the table. She knew that was going to come back to haunt her one of these days. Both officers gaped at her; she had just one thought.

_It's over…_


	23. Chapter 23

**Sannie: lol, glad you liked it. And, if it makes you feel any better, in my next fanfiction after this one I probably _won't _kill Ash. Can't promise though, because he just has such great killing potential:-P, seriously, thanks for the review!**

**XanthiaNightshade: wow, lol, thanks for the compliment! Completely made my day, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!**

I'm not going to be writing for a day or two after today because I will be away. If I get 4 more reviews I'll write another couple of chapters before I go on holiday on Monday, otherwise you're just all gonna have to wait until I come back on Saturday, Mwuahahahaa.

May the story commence… 

Plans. They were useless things really until you had one. Jez and Keller were sitting side by side, desperately trying to work out something that would change a useless word into something they could use. They were both sore from recent beatings, where Jez refused to join them or tell them where Galen was and where they were just doubly pissed off at Keller.

Keller found all her thoughts receding into the background. She'd always had hope, always thought that maybe they'd all be saved and she and Galen could live happily ever after. Now that hope was gone. A bittersweet dream.

She would never become Mrs. Keller Drache, she would never again see Galen's wide green eyes widen with emotion, never again kiss him full of all the love offered between them. She would die and he would be heartbroken, but would eventually probably be forced to marry Illiana and attempt something mirroring a life. And maybe it was for the best.

But she couldn't believe that, and now that she and Jez were sitting in the cell, listening to Jez's soulmate's cries of pain as he two was quiet about the whereabouts of Galen. None of them were weak, and Keller was forever thankful that they weren't, it secured Galen's safety.

"Keller?" Jez's voice was raw, her throat suffering a breakage to her vocal chords, she sounded strange, but also kind of how she was supposed to sound, Keller turned one lazy eye on her, "Keller? You're frightening the kids."

Sure enough, the three girls and Galen's parents were staring at her. The girls with scared looks on their faces. Keller didn't understand it, what was she doing? Or was it just the appearance of their would-be sister in law, covered in blood? "huh?"

"You keep mumbling, 'it's all over, there's no hope, we're all gonna die'" Jez informed her worriedly, "sometimes in different order, but basically the drift. Have some hope, Keller; we _could _get out alive. Two young fighters like ourselves," even if they didn't look like warriors right then.

"Hope is for weak people, Jez, and you've practically said it yourself, neither of us is weak. We both know what's going to happen."

"Maybe we do," Jez agreed, "and maybe we're right. But we still probably have Rashel and Quinn, Delos and Poppy and James and they're all fighters. Fighting for _us, _we have a small chance. And even if what you say is true, why scare the children?"

With that, both of them lapsed into silence.

* * *

Gillian was finally there, at the point that her mind had been racing to get her to. She had slept in a few motels over the nights, watching the TV as a hunt went on trying to find her, useless of course, her parents' and David's teary faces were splashed all over the news, and she felt awful, but she couldn't call them. For one, she didn't have a cell phone, for two, they wouldn't understand what she was doing and would demand she came home.

Now, she was on Night Stock Road, just outside Las Vegas, and staring at a warehouse. It was dark and forbidding, but that didn't necessarily mean it truly belonged to the Night World, Gillian stood outside it for several minutes before making up her mind to investigate. She didn't think of herself as truly brave, but she would be rather embarrassed if she went to the payphone down the road to phone Thierry only to find the Warehouse was empty.

No doubt it would be fitted with security alarms, but Gillian spotted a window to the left of the warehouse, it was smashed, but only tiny. Luckily, Gillian too was tiny, she might just have fit through it.

She crept through the bushes towards the window, then pulled herself up to examine it. It was jagged with broken glass, and it was going to be a tight fit, but she was now confident that she'd be able to fit inside. She pushed herself through it, sucking in everything there was to suck in – which wasn't a lot – she felt glass puncture her side, but she ignored that and tumbled head first into the room.

Luckily, the room was empty. She didn't know what she would have done had it been full of vampires; she wouldn't have stood a chance. It was also, however, empty of any evidence that her friend was here. There were boxes. Empty boxes, she discovered on further inspection, but no Keller. she stepped out of the room, nervously, knowing she could easily be recognized. There were a couple of vampire guards down the hall, she ran and ducked behind a corner when they started to walk towards her.

"What was that?" one of them asked, a woman.

"I didn't hear anything, you're mind's playing tricks on you, Fea."

They passed by her, and Gillian sighed out in relief. Maybe she still had her guardian angel watching out for her, otherwise she wasn't quite sure they'd have walked past her like that. She waited until they finished down the hall, then snuck out and started down the hall.

"Hey, you! Where do you think you're going?" there was a voice behind her, and in her panic Gillian couldn't figure whether it was male or female, friend or foe, but she easily imagined that it would be an enemy. She turned, ready to give up, but she heard words repeated from her as if from very far away, (_your name is Hilary Herman, you are with Circle Midnight, you _were _informed they were expecting you.) (Angel?) _she asked incredulously once she'd repeated the words, but she got no reply. If this was Gary, it was a very quiet one.

_Or maybe your _own _brain has started working, _she told herself, but if she had been choosing a name it _wouldn't _have been Hilary, _Hilary Herman, _the alliteration was a little too much.

"Oh, Ms. Herman, ma'am," she saw the man in front of her bow his head in a symbol of respect, looking contrite, "please excuse my manners, I did not realise. It is just our duty, you see."

(_you understand, but he'd better make sure he doesn't let it happen, or he'll be a dead puppy. You didn't expect werewolves – even in this place – to have higher IQ's than sparrows anyway. Ask him to show you to your work,) Oh, but that's mean…insulting a werewolf's intelligence, _she thought, she had met many werewolves – Lupe included – who probably had higher IQ's than her. The voice assured her that almost all Night People thought like that, she repeated the words.

The werewolf's face contorted during some of that, but he wasn't going to say anything, instead he nodded, "Yes ma'am. The execution is almost ready to begin."

(_Execution? EXECUTION! I'm not going to execute anyone.)_

The voice in her head was silent for a while, and she feared it had left her, then it said, (_say you were not told of the duty you were here to perform, ask him what it entails.)_

She did what he asked and the werewolf laughed, "well, Hilary Harman, you're the best of the best and they still keep you in the dark? We have hostages; you could call them, six of them. Actually, eight, but six are all _you_ need to worry about, sweetheart. The whole of the Drache family, and the little Prince's fiancée."

Keller. she was supposed to execute Keller, (_you see, does he have a phone? You told your superiors that you'd tell them as soon as you yourself knew.)_

The werewolf blinked twice, "oh, sure," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Gillian knew better than to phone the Descouedres mansion where they'd easily be able to figure out the number. She instead phoned David's cell phone. He was home, but he'd phone Thierry for her."

"Blackburn," she snapped out as soon as he picked up, hoping desperately it was David, she copied the words that her mind told her, "It's Harman, tell the boss that my job at Knight Stock Road – the one just outside of Vegas, you know? – It's to execute the Draches. Tell the boss, he'll want to document it."

"Gillian, are you okay? What happened?" David called down the floor.

"Sure, Blackburn, just make sure you tell the boss about the mission on _Knight Stock Road, _okay?"

"Sure, great, I love you Gillian. I'm so glad you're okay."

"see to it straight away." She said, flipping the phone, then – on the voice's instruction, she reached out for a scrap of wood, spinning with it, she hit the werewolf right in the ugly, salivating mouth. He fell to the floor. Unconscious.

* * *

"We've just got a call from Gillian!" Lupe called, running through the door to Rashel and Quinn's room, where they were wearing the minimal amounts of clothing possible without being naked, Rashel had her mouth to the gap between Quinn's teeth and his chest, which was gaping blood. Rashel hopped off the bed, apparently not annoyed at having been walked in on at an inappropriate time and pulled on a black shirt. Quinn gasped out a sigh of annoyance and he too got off the bed to put his shirt on, Lupe averted her eyes.

"Great, and that was the last time we were going to need to do that too," Quinn sighed, wishing they could have just got it over with before Rashel changed her mind about wanting to become a vampire, "this better be good."

"it is," Lupe could hardly contain the excitement in her voice, "she's located Keller and the Draches, they're in Knight Stock Road, we've looked it up and the only Night World property is a warehouse. It's outside Vegas, but from what we could figure out the Drache's are going to be executed. They must have gotten sick of trying to lure Galen when it so obviously wasn't working. We've got to get them out of there!"

"Jez? Morgead?" Rashel asked, now pulling her trousers on.

"we don't know, Gillian didn't mention them, but it's a start. Galen wants you to both lead different teams. He's sending four of them, to infiltrate the warehouse from the North, the east, the west and the…"

"South?" Quinn guessed half-heartedly.

Lupe winked at him, "however did you guess? Rashel, you'll be going in from the North, Quinn – you'll be from the East. I'll head one team and Delos the other."

"Delos?" Rashel asked, although she felt good for him, finally he wasn't going to be treat like a baby who needed to be protected, "they're letting him out."

"without Jez, what's the point in keeping him in a bubble?" Quinn guessed, standing up now, fully dressed.

"Report downstairs in ten minutes," Lupe informed them, "and…urrr…whatever you were doing, you should wipe the blood from your mouth Rashel."

"Maybe I'll leave it, it would be rather dramatic, and people will have to get used to it eventually," she reached for Quinn's hand, squeezed it, full of promise that she'd still let him change her. For once, things were looking up.

**Review 'points down' and I'll love you forever. No stalking involved, I promise. Hehe.**

**I might write _one _more chapter before I leave, but otherwise – four reviews needed to read the next one.**


	24. Chapter 24

**XanthiaNightshade: Thanks lol, and okay...I'm no good at threatening not to update anyway, but after this chapter, I am gonna have to leave it for at least a day- sorry :(**

The baby was born while everyone was preparing for the mission in which they would hopefully find Keller. Galen wasn't allowed to go, after much argumentation which resulted in Lupe phoning Thierry - who _ordered _him not to go, who_ordered _other people to make sure he couldn't go- the result was that he got to hear the woman's screams as she panted and breathed louder than anyone evershould need to, while an imported medical witch soothed her. For Galen, it was sickening,even from rooms away; he gave himself a mental note to inform Keller that he wouldn't be presentat their children's births, not if it hurt this much to even _hear._

Still, he was too deliriously overcome with hope to even think about it for long. They had told him not to get his hopes up, that Keller could easily die, but how could he help it? He desperately needed his soulmate, his love, if he gave up hope he'd die.

"Oh My GOD..." he sighed, Elle Panter. Again.

He wouldn't have even let Elle Panter stay if he had any guts. She had destroyed Keller's life for seventeen years - he wanted nothing to do with her - but she would most likely have been killed by the Night World if he sent her away, and no matter how much he despised her, he didn't want her death - or the death of Keller's sibling - on his conscience.

"Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!"

_Some music, _he thought to himself, _I'll listen to some nice, gentle music...or some of Keller's rock..._but nothing could block out the screams, not even the howl of Keller's CDs on highest volume.

"Galen, Elle wants to see you a moment." A witch came to him when the noise suddenly ceased, "we've found a tumour, apparently she always knew she had cancer. She wants you to come for the baby."

He went, but only because he was too stunned to even think straight. Why did she want _him _to come for the baby? It didn't make any sense.

"My Lord," the woman sighed, out of breath, as Galen entered the room, the witch left, "I have cancer – incurable – and I'd given up hope for this baby too," she pointed to a witch, who was washing the child. She spoke as though she didn't have much energy left, "I want you – and Keller too – to name the baby. At least if she gets passed around from foster home to foster home, like I'm told Keller did, she will have a better name than Demon."

"You're giving _this _kid up too?" Galen asked incredulously, "you make your _first _daughter up, and then you try to give up your second one too? We don't even know if Keller's alive, if we're going to be able to get her out. Doesn't that make you feel _anything? _Don't you want to be with this child as long as you can?"

She shook her head, opened her mouth as though to say something, but Galen was already leaving the room.

* * *

"We've contacted her parents. They seem to be in huge conflict about their daughter," the police officer said, this one was a woman, "her father says that Poppy had pancreatic cancer but got over it, her twin brother Philip says the same thing. But her stepfather and mother both disagree, they say she died." 

"And the cause of death for the girl?" the man asked.

"Completely natural. We have to let the other two girls go, there's no sign of them breaking the system. They didn't unplug the machine. All they left there was a red stone, and that had nothing wrong with it. She died a completely natural death, and they have those bloody good lawyers breathing down our necks. We're gonna have to let them go."

"And this one?"

"There's a girl downstairs, calls herself Nissa. Is willing to post bail for the girl, we're gonna have to let her go too, Henry."

Poppy breathed a sigh of relief. The two police officers didn't think she could hear them, but she could with her enhanced senses.

"How did you explain the stone?"

"It's New Age shit. They believe it has healing powers, probably her friend's – that _Thea's, _we have no choice but to let them all go, but we're gonna have to keep our eyes on them. Yessiree."

_Yes! _Poppy exclaimed, remaining calm as they told her that she was able to go. She, Winnie and Jeannette jumped down the stairs and into the car Nissa had waiting for them. She tore out of the police station already above the speed limit.

"Hey!" Winnie screamed, "we've just got _out _of there, we don't want to have to go back!"

Nissa slowed down a touch, then raced off again, "we've located Keller, if we get back quick enough, we'll be able to go and help them."

"Then why are you going so _slow!" _Winnie called, "Hurry it up!"

"Whatever you say, Winfred," Nissa laughed, pushing her foot down on the accelerator.

* * *

Rashel stood at the North side of the building, an army of vampires and shape shifters – and to a lower extent, witches – behind her. They were about to ram the door, throw themselves through it and kill anything – _anything _– that stood in their way. She felt strong, exhilarated, with Quinn's blood rushing around inside of her. And now she screamed practically a war cry, "let's go!" 

Okay, so she was a few minutes ahead of schedule, she hadn't been given the signal, but so what? They rushed towards the door, already finding themselves face to face with a crowd of werewolves. She dug through them with her silver dagger, clawing at them with fingers and weapons alike.

She had never felt so alive.

There were screams, cries, and she knew some of them probably belonged to her own warriors, but the majority of them were the enemy. The ones who had caused _so _much trouble. They seemed weak now, vulnerable, now that they were attacked in their own base. It almost made her laugh, until she realised that they had been the same.

Nissa and Winnie were in front of her. They had come just in time to join her team, and now they were so excited about seeing their boss that Nissa was the only one fighting, Winnie was just racing forward, down the stairs. Anyone that came near faced the wrath of Nissa's mighty fighting stick.

Rashel raced forward, she couldn't let an excitable witch and a vampire go on their own. They'd be killed. She tore through the werewolf she was fighting with her silver knife, decapitating him with one sure swipe, then raced after them.

"Oh Goddess, mommy!" a little girl's voice screamed. All action seemed to be going in slow motion now, Rashel herself raced towards the source of the sound and felt all her fighters who weren't currently engaged in hand to hand battle follow her. Grey walls passed in a blur. Witches and vampires alike came out to join the crowd of fighting, but she ignored them, all she was interested in was getting to that little girl who sounded so desperate.

Like she had been when her mother was so cruelly snatched.

She broke through a door, and now everything was moving quickly again. She saw Galen's father: king of the shape shifters, bowed down beside his wife. Or his wife's body, she no longer had a head. Keller was snarling, her head down, the girls who she supposed must have been Galen's sisters were crying, apart from one – she was screaming her brains out. The one Rashel had heard.

Now, Keller looked up and Rashel could see her face. Both eyes were black, her cheeks discoloured with scars and scratches, it looked as though they might even have tried to burn or bite her ear off. The clothes she was wearing were in shreds, a long dagger mark going from her ankle to her thigh and – Oh goddess – the blood was _everywhere. _Blood and gore and things Rashel couldn't even recognize.

No wonder Galen had been in pain. Not when his soulmate had had to suffer _this._

Above Galen's father was a vampire, and at first Rashel thought it was Jez Redfern, but no…she only looked very similar. She held a sword, and now the sword came down…down…further towards his throat. Even though he didn't have the battered appearance of Keller, he seemed battered in soul, he didn't move to even try and fight.

Rashel dived, towards the sword. Keller saw her for the first time and cried out, "Rashel!" but Rashel was still leaping. She missed. The sword came down, right through his throat, and he too lost his head.

"Kill her!" the vampire screamed, pointing a slender finger at Rashel, turning to another set of guards she screamed, "and bring two of the girls'. A Drache and his fiancée…"

Rashel turned screamed, "I need backup!" and started fighting her way through the numerous vampires. Her team followed, and then through the door burst Quinn with his team. Someone was holding the Wild Power Jez Redfern up, and now she was _covered _with blood. She _could _use the blue fire, yet she didn't. Rashel heard the cries silenced as a little girl died.

_Keller's turn next. _Over the rafters came a voice, a voice she had come to recognize: Morgead's. He was screaming, "I'm fine, Jez, use the blue fire!" and someone vaulted over the landing above, bringing down two guards as he landed. Delos. He went to stand beside Jez, cutting himself as he went.

Both of them exploded with blue fire, Jez screaming as she did so, as though it hurt too much. The fire came through the enemy, smouldering them all. Until all that was left was ash on the floor. Luckily, the warehouse still stood. Jez had learnt to control her blue fire. But it wasn't like Illiana's, it didn't have healing effects, and everyone injured was still so. The vampire who looked like Jez ran, and Rashel wasn't sure whether the fire followed her, but she wasn't about to check.

"Wow," Rashel said.

Nissa and Winnie had other worries though; they ran to their friend, who was lying on the floor in a heap, trying to push herself up. Winnie played with the chains around her for a moment and sighed, "we'll need to take her to a Harman. I can't take these things off. Or maybe even the mother or the maiden. They're blocking her shape shifting." She turned her attention back to Keller, "oh, boss, what have they done to you?"

Rashel could hear the croaking, rasping words even from where she was standing, "I think…I might really be dying this time. I'm sorry Winfred," with blind eyes she searched out, reached for Nissa and Winnie's hands, "tell Galen…"

"I wont tell Galen anything," Winnie said adamantly, tears trailing down her cheeks, "because we're getting you to Galen's mansions. We'll get Thea in from the hospital and every other medical witch there is in this damn world. You're gonna be fine."

"Tell Galen that I love him," Keller said, and closed her eyes.

**I know, I know, I'm evil, but if you want to know whether Keller's dead or not, you're gonna have to review.**

**Mwuahahahahahahahaha**


	25. Chapter 25

**Jalena**** – haha, yep, absolutely. I had to leave it hanging so people would review, complaining at me :D**

"She's not dead!" Winnie informed the crowds around her, and one collective sigh of relief was issued, "she probably wishes she was, but hey, it's Keller we're talking about!"

Quinn stepped forward out of the crowd, a savage look on his face, as the oldest one there he had some form of authority, he snapped out orders, "James, contact Thierry, tell him Jez and Keller have been found. Poppy, phone Galen, tell him to get as many medical witches as he can find. Delos, take a team and get the kids the hell out of here, Gillian: phone Thea, tell her to discharge herself from hospital and get over to Galen's mansion. I want these bodies taken back to Thierry's mansion. There's a helicopter waiting outside for Morgead, Keller and Jez. Now go!"

Normally, at that sort of request, there'd be a lot of mumbling, _who made you boss? _And, you're _telling _us _what to do? _This time, all he got was compliance. He turned to Rashel and outstretched his arms, her toppling neatly into them. He always knew how she felt through the chord that chained them together, and even the untouchable Rashel Jordan was upset to see a four-year-old child beheaded with her parents.

Just as soon as she'd joined his embrace, she stepped back, "We need to help," Winnie and Nissa were trying to carry Keller out. Although Nissa probably wished Winnie would stop fussing and let her do it alone, it seemed the witch was doing more bad than good.

Jez was in a bad state too, as was Morgead, but neither were as bad as her. They could both still stand up, still walk, and still breathe without coughing up blood, and they seemed as though they wanted some time together, so no one bothered them.

They'd get the story out of them later.

Eventually, the warehouse had dispersed of Night World creatures and Daybreakers alike. Jez, Morgead and Keller got into the helicopter. The little girls got into Nissa's car along with Winnie and Nissa; the rest of them all went to their own vehicles.

Quinn was content. His soulmate was going to become a vampire so that they could be together forever. The mission had been completed, even at the death of a child and the king and queen of the shape shifters. The world still had as much hope as it had had before, now all there was for it was for them to get the hell out of there. Whistling, for no apparent reason, he ran over to his own car.

* * *

As soon as the helicopter stopped outside his house, Galen was in the courtyard, running over the grass, and was there before anyone could stop him. They were wheeling people out on stretchers, apart from Delos, who swaggered out and put a hand on Galen's shoulder, "don't touch her. She's in a lot of pain, she doesn't look…quite like Keller…"

Even after being given that warning, Galen couldn't quite believe his eyes when he saw Keller. Never before, in all her missions, had she ever gotten that bad. _The bastards, _he thought, and this was rare, because Galen hardly ever hated a person to the extent of calling them that. Internally, he felt the desperate urge that seemed to be trying to make him grab Keller and hold onto her for the rest of existence.

He didn't, however, because of what Delos had said. Instead, he reached for her hand, hoping that he wouldn't find a bloody stump there where her hand should have been. His fingers met hers and he held on tightly, she was unconscious, she probably couldn't even feel him there, but it gave him a rush. He had never thought he'd be able to touch her again, never again be able to see her beautiful face. And even though she was covered in blood and scars, her face was still that of his greatest dreams.

"Galen," the voice was threatening to break him away from his beloved Keller, was threatening to pull him away from her, and he'd been away from her too long, too, too long…

"Galen," he held Keller's hand to his mouth and kissed it, felt hands on his back. Ignored them. Then there were arms around his neck, and he pretty much had to turn around.

"GALEN!" Thea was screaming at him, she hugged him briefly, then pushed him aside, "you're going to have to let go of Keller so we can get her inside, then we'll be able to heal her…" she paused, looked doubtful, "some of her anyway."

He didn't like the sound of that. What wouldn't they be able to heal? Had the bastards that had held her captive injected her with some deadly disease or something? The thought was irrational, but so had everything in his life lately, "what do you mean?" he asked Thea in a small voice.

"I mean…" she trailed off when she saw her face, "don't look at me like that Galen. We're not going to let her die, but chances are we might not be able to heal most of the scars she's developed."

Oh. Well, as long as she lived, he didn't mind what she looked like; being soulmates was beyond caring about one another's looks. He loved her for her soul, for her ferocity, her nobility. For the way she could be completely uncomprehending about how much her friends thought of her, the gentle girl with a panthers instincts. Really, her looks hadn't come into it at all, even though she was beautiful.

He just hated to be there when some poor fool gave her a mirror.

* * *

Thea hurt all over as she helped wheel Keller through the house to one of the downstairs bedrooms, Eric was on the other side of the trolley, and although he wouldn't be able to do anything for Keller – he wanted to be a vet, after all, not a doctor – he would be able to help her. The other medical witch was with Morgead. Thea smiled when she thought of the trouble she'd had to go through just to get there: she'd gotten stubborn argumentation from Eric, his mother, Rosemund, and the doctors. Actually, she had gotten flat orders from the doctors – you _must not leave this hospital, Thea Harman – _but she'd ignored them. One of her own children had died in vain because she hadn't been able to save Holly…it made her want to help Keller even more, and eventually Eric had relented and helped her get out of that place – just as she knew he would. He might be stubborn, but he didn't want her doing it on her own.

Now, she rapped out orders to those following the trolley, "Winnie, I need some Marigold, Calendula officinalis, crushed into salve… it should help the scars heal, Nissa, go to one of the witches and see if they have a Jasper bloodstone, Jeannette: I need some Chickweed, stellaria media…and some mistletoe, Poppy: get a clear quartz, and Eric: go get something so we can wash the blood."

Everyone around her stared. They weren't used to seeing Thea so authoritive, but it wasn't only that, "Marigolds?" Winnie asked incredulously.

"Marigold Calendula Officinalis," Thea repeated calmly, "it's twice as big as a normal marigold, a very effective herb, and I'll need it to close the scars quicker, hopefully she'll only have faint marks where the scars have been. There must be _some _here, if not, go into town and buy some…"

"Urm…" Jeannette seemed reluctant to leave, "I don't even know what Chickweed blah is supposed to be."

"it's a herb, when used with mistletoe it restores strength. Just say chickweed when you look for it, they'll know what you want."

"I sincerely doubt it," they all heard her mumble as she started off down the hall. Poppy and Nissa took their instructions fine, so did Eric, squeezing her arm softly before taking off down the hall. With Galen, she wheeled the trolley the remaining distance to the bedroom and let Galen lift her onto the bed.

"Okay, Galen, time for you to leave now," she shot him a glance.

He looked stunned, as though he was surprised that anyone could ask it of him, he looked down on Keller's unconscious form, "Please Thea…I…I…don't want to leave her," he seemed to be choking the words out, his head was down, "I haven't been with her for the past three weeks or so, and it… I need to be here…"

Because she felt the emotion behind the words, and because she doubted she could move him anyway, Thea nodded, Eric returned with water and clothes a few minutes later andwrang out a cloth, dabbing at Keller's forehead, waiting for the others to come back.

**The story's nearly over, I really want to finish this one before I go on holiday, but I don't know whether I will or not. Sorry if I don't…**

**And REVIEW!**


	26. Chapter 26

_It hurt. _Oh goddess, it hurt. Every muscle in her body hurt, and she was sure she must have died. However else would she define this strange tightness in her heart and the tears she could feel welled up in her eyes? Then she felt contact, a small touch of a hand on hers, nothing more, and she suddenly felt alive…

* * *

Thea worked all day and all night, even though she had to take occasional rests at Eric's insistence. Galen watched in amazement as she pressed crushed herbs into Keller's wounded, chanting under her breath, using the crystals to direct her energy. It was like watching a miracle take place in front of his eyes. And it was, the miracle of Keller being returned to him.

A few times, she had woken up only to mumble some strange sentences. Galen didn't understand why, but after what she'd been through, she had a right to be undistinguishable. Now, her eyes popped open and she moaned in pain, Galen shot forward like a bullet, Thea gave him a _look _and he only reached for her hand instead of embracing her as he wanted to.

He _wanted _to kiss away the pain, hold her and tell her everything would be okay, but he couldn't, not without causing more pain, and this thought saddened him, but her being alive was a miracle in itself, her and his family…untouched.

At least he assumed his family was fine, he hadn't really asked, he'd been more concerned about Keller, the one he had _known _was in extreme agony because of him, his soulmate – the most important person in the world to him.

"Can I go and see my family until Keller wakes up?" he asked, looking up. Thea and Eric shared a nervous glance, which they often did when deciding whether to tell someone something.

That's when he knew. He stood up, then sat down hard, never letting go of Keller's hand, "how are they?"

"Brena, your mother, your father," Eric started uncomfortably, crossing the room and putting a hand on his shoulder. He might have brushed it off, but it was strangely comforting, "they were…they…uh…they didn't make it."

Galen looked down, feeling the tears rolling down his cheeks. They seemed to spring without even forming in his eyes first. The fact Keller was alive seemed even more of a miracle now, but maybe his parents and he had never been particularly close, yet they'd been his parents… and Brena was his little sister – what more could he say? She was only four…

"Lira and Taylor are fine," Thea put in shortly, doing something with a crystal, then setting it down, "I can't do anything more for her until she regains consciousness."

She looked as though she wanted to leave, she was shooting glances at Eric, as though to tell him to give Galen some time alone to talk to his soulmate. He wasn't getting the hint, he hovered near, watching Galen. Maybe he knew the question he inevitably had to ask.

"How did they…how did they die?" he asked, choking on his own bile and tears.

Now, Thea too crossed the room towards him, put her arms around his neck, gently, and he knew it wouldn't be good, she thought he'd need a shoulder to cry on, "they were beheaded. None of them were harmed before that Galen, just Keller, she was going to be next."

She was right, he did need a shoulder to cry on. He dropped Keller's hand, she shot up right in front of him, eyes open, mouth wide, "Galen!" she screamed.

It took all three of them to calm her down, until Galen reached for her hand and this seemed to silence her immediately, he was crying, and she saw his tears.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, "I couldn't save them, I would have done anything, Galen…I would have…"

"Shhh," Thea hushed, "save your strength," she fluffed her pillows like a mother hen, clucked her tongue when she looked at her, then nodded, "come on, Eric," she winked, leaving the room.

"Galen, I…"

whatever she was going to say, it didn't matter, he brushed it aside with a hand through her hair, "it doesn't matter. All that's important is you're home, and that I love you." He put his arms tentatively around her, careful not to touch anywhere where she was hurt.

This time, when she drifted into unconsciousness, it was in his arms.

**Only 8 more short chapters to go! Lol, I'll definitely be finished by Sunday. :D maybe even tonight.**


	27. Chapter 27

**TWO WEEKS AFTER THE RETURN OF KELLER.**

Lord Thierry Descouedres and Lady Hannah Snow arrived back at the Circle Daybreak Headquarters as soon as they could. It had taken a week to get the tickets, but now they were back. Home sweet home. The place had practically been gutted from the top floor to the bottom with the Night Worlders looking for Galen, but Thierry didn't care about that. He had money, he could fix the mansion – or replace it if need be.

Arriving home, the first thing he did was plan a circle Daybreak meeting in his shattered house, now he stared out at it. It was a poor example of a meeting, mostly he had wanted the soulmate couples to be there, only four of them had made it out of the eight he would normally have had, excluding him and Hannah. Poppy and James were there, but wouldn't be around for long – following Poppy's arrest, she had decided she had to tell her family the truth, no one disapproved, humans would know about the Night World only too soon anyway – Quinn and Rashel were also there. the latter now vampire, this news had surprised everyone – Rashel 'The Cat' Jordan? Vampire hunter extraordinaire and supreme vampire hater? She said she'd still be a vampire hunter, just like Jez Redfern, everyone else was doubtful – Gillian and David were there, although they said it was extremely hard to get away from the clutches of the 'parental units', Gillian had joked that she liked it better when neither of them cared. Of course, everyone knew that wasn't true. Delos and Maggie also came, even though Thierry had told them not to for fear of the wild powers moving about.

Mary-Lynette and Ash couldn't come, for the obvious reasons. Their funeral had been held, along with the other dead, back when Thierry and Hannah were still on vacation, they didn't have a showing, for which most people were grateful. A dead vampire and a blown-to-bits-human were not what most people would like to see. They were buried side by side, together for eternity. Thea had been rushed back into hospital with strict orders from the doctor that there was going to be double security watching her now and a lot of complaints from Mrs. Ross, Eric – of course – was with her. Jez and Morgead were 'recovering' although the rest of the couples thought they might be a bit busy doing over things to attend and Keller was still out of commission, she was conscious, but she was taking one shaky step at a time – Galen of course helping.

They'd put their wedding back, understandably, giving Keller four months to recover.

It would never be the same relaxed get-together as Circle Daybreak meetings had been before. Not with Ash and Mary-Lynette gone forever, everyone suffering so much. Poppy would normally have been sat on James's lap, stuffing her mouth with crisps, now she was sitting on the floor, back rigid against the sofa. James was behind her, arms around her neck reassuringly. Rashel and Quinn were at opposite sides of the room, at watch at each of the windows, Delos and Maggie sat on opposite sides of a sofa, hands touching across the space, Gillian and David both sitting on the floor. Gone was the relaxation, definitely.

Thierry gripped Hannah's hand, and coughed. Instantly, he got everyone's attention.

If he hadn't known something was up to begin with, had he not known what that 'something' was, he would have been alerted by that. "Obviously, Circle Daybreak hasn't been as strong as we thought at first, the Night World was too strong. Which means we need a more direct approach than what we've been working on."

"A house would be nice," Rashel cut in.

He blinked, "well, yes, that wasn't exactly what I was talking about though," Quinn snorted, "we're going to have to recruit more members, beyond that, we're going to have to give them the capability to protect themselves. For the humans and witches especially…" he shook his head, "they didn't stand a chance. Humans themselves are not weak," he acknowledged, gripping Hannah's hand, nodding to David and Maggie, who were staring at him indignantly, "as a human, Rashel was feared by most vampires. It was because these people _weren't _fighters," he raked a hand through his hair, "I hate to say this, but Hannah and I…we've decided, _everyone _needs to be a fighter in the aid of self-preservation."

There was silence. Utter-silence. Then a laugh, a giggling outburst, each turned to look at Poppy, "You and _Hannah _decided that everyone needs to fight? You're _practically pacifists!"_

That was almost true, but what else could he do? Thierry ignored the comment and glanced over, "Rashel, Quinn, James, Delos and Poppy. I'll be wanting you, along with Jez and Morgead, Lupe and Nissa, to holding training sessions in which _everyone _must partake unless they have a reason otherwise to protect themselves," he set his eye on Delos, "if you and Jez use your powers at any time, you'll be taken out of the system," he paused, "I'll be asking Thea, Winnie, Jeannette and others to be helping the lost witches and perhaps teach some humans to learn magic," he looked at Gillian, "you are a lost witch, but you've barely learnt any magic, and that's my fault, because I never initiated it…you might have needed it to protect yourself back in that warehouse, and it was my fault you didn't have that option. I'll be sending teams of spies regularly. As a whole, the witches and shape shifters have joined us, but there are many – much too many – who still stick with the Night World. combined with the werewolves and the vampires…" he trailed off, "we're going to have to have the humans on our side."

There was a collective gape, "you mean, break cover…to humans?" James asked unbelievingly.

"Oh I don't know," Thierry admitted, "it might just be the adrenaline of the moment, but we're definitely doing the training thing."

"Why does this seem more like the military every day?" Maggie asked cheerfully. Everyone groaned.

"in the meantime, if you need me or Hannah for anything, we'll be staying at her house while I get this one repaired," he gave a rueful smile, "I suggest you stay with Galen, if he'll have you, or go home."


	28. Chapter 28

**A MONTH AFTER THE RETURN OF KELLER**

DUM, DUM, DUM DI-DUM, DUMDI, DUMDI, DUM, DUM, DUM the beat played again and again, Poppy wiggled about in her seat in some parody of a dance, stamping her feet on the floor. James peeked over at her, gave a small smile, and then turned back to the windscreen. He hadn't seen Poppy like this for a long time; excited, happy… he knew that however much she loved him, she'd always have a hole in her heart where her family had been.

Poppy had changed, but so had everyone. Rarely, she was as carefree as she was right now, having cancer had made her grow up quickly, as breaking the law had James. James admitted that he wasn't too sure about letting Poppy see her family, even if no one else had disagreed, telling them that their dead daughter isn't dead at all, and is actually a vampire, could be rather dangerous. What if one of them reached for a piece of wood? They'd informed Phil that they were coming ahead of time, Poppy had ended that phone call with a cheerful, "Move everything sharp and wooden from the house, including the toothpicks!"

They could both only hope they had.

"Gotta love this song!" Poppy yelled over the music, and James grinned back. The others in the house taunted them for listening to techno, but they were in complete agreement about which songs they liked.

"Gotta," James agreed, not moving his eyes from the road for a moment.

"I talked to Phil, y'know? And he told me that mom had bought two cats. Poppy and Pixie…" she paused, Pixie had been one of her many nicknames, mainly because she looked like one, "isn't that so sad? She got them because they were like…whatchamacallit? I don't know…they reminded her of me, they're red with green eyes."

James didn't say anything. She was such a different girl now from the one engrossed in being part of the action at Circle Daybreak that she crossed the line between being enthusiastic and reckless. He grinned.

"Do you think they'll like me, Jamie?" she asked suddenly.

"Of course, Poppet, cats have very good sense of taste," he answered good-naturedly, "sure they'll like their namesake, even if it's blatantly obvious they can't compare…"

She gaped at him, "Cliff and mom, Jamie," she gasped out, "not Poppy and Pixie…"

"Well, they liked you before just fine, didn't they?" James asked with a small smile. Unlike his parents, his parents probably wished they'd never had a child. He didn't blame them. He wasn't what they referred to as a 'real vampire'.

"Yeah," Poppy got a faraway look in her eye, and she didn't even seem to realise that her favourite song was on, "Cliff even swore for me. Cliff 'straight laced' Cliff… but, that was before I became…what I am…"

"A vampire," James supplied, "your parents wont care, Poppet. You're alive – that's all that matters."

They pulled up outside the door and James was tempted to say 'you go ahead Poppy, I'll sink down in the seat and pretend I'm not here' but that wouldn't make her happy, and she needed moral support, so he got up and opened the door while she stared at the house. "I'll tell you what," he said, "I'll go and tell them the truth, it will take some of the shock out of them seeing her."

"But then only _you'd _be attacked by the wooden toothpicks, or the Chinese chopsticks we have in our kitchen cupboard," Poppy said in a parody of humour, "I'll come."

they walked to the doorstep together, but the path was only big enough for one person, that's how James ended up _behind _Poppy when her mother answered the door.

"May I help you?" she inquired nicely, she had bags under her eyes the size of mountains and she focused wearily, as though given up. Phillip had said she wasn't good today, the anniversairy of Poppy's 'death' but neither had thought that bad. She was bony from lack of eating and now James could see the tears rolling down Poppy's face, "she doesn't recognize me, Jamie."

James personally didn't think she'd even seen her, but now he stepped forward, "Mrs. North…?"

"James?" she asked uncertainly, and he wasn't surprised that she recognized him and not her own daughter. She didn't want to _believe _that her daughter was there, because that would mean she was insane. "It's been a while, who's your friend?" she put the emphasis on _friend, _she knew how much he had meant to Poppy…

"Mom…it's me," Poppy murmured gently, and James knew she'd break down if her mother didn't remember her soon, "Poppy…"

her mother stared. Gosh, she stared. Then her face contorted into something resembling happiness, she didn't ask questions, not right then, she threw herself on Poppy instead and held her, crying.

Then she asked the inevitable question, "how?"

"Mom, remember when you said you didn't care if I had to go to the moon to get better? Well, I had to go to Las Vegas…that's where I got better…"

"But you were dead," her mother wailed, "We buried you!"

"and Jamie was my cure," Poppy had to squeeze her eyes shut at this, "after I died, I became a vampire…"

her mother looked up at this, disbelieving, but Poppy showed her her fangs, after having her dead daughter come back to life, didn't seem much of a surprise, "and James…?"

"James is one too," Poppy nodded, "he turned me, but it was against the law, so I couldn't come back," now she cried, "only Phil knew…"

James decided that he felt particularly superfluous standing there whilst those two cried. He stepped into the house and into the kitchen, where he found Phillip – eating.

He looked up, "how's she taking it?"

"Better than you."

Phillip poked his head out of the kitchen and looked back into the kitchen, "your feeling is that that's better than I did?"

James smiled, "much."


	29. Chapter 29

ONE MONTH AND TWO WEEKS AFTER THE RETURN OF KELLER 

Climbing. It was an exhilarating sport, and he was starting to see why his soulmate was so taken with it. Miles had invited them climbing with him and wild dogs couldn't keep Maggie and Delos away – not even those with the intelligence of a human and under Galen's and Thierry's instructions – no doubt when they got back, they'd be thoroughly told off, but neither cared.

What Night People were there on the mountain anyway? Except for him and Miles.

Every so often, Miles would show off by changing into a bird and going to the far-off placed that Maggie wanted to go to, she just laughed. And now was one of those times. She and Delos were sitting on a bank, tired out from climbing, or at least Maggie was tired and Delos was being a gentleman.

He remembered Rashel and Quinn, if Quinn had convinced Rashel-vampire-hater to change, maybe he could do the same for Maggie. He tried to think not much beyond the next half-century or so, but it was a pain in the ass knowing you were going to live forever, unless you faced a terrible accident, and that your soulmate couldn't hope to live nearly as long. That she had only a human life before her, and that he was going to have to change her in the next year or so or he couldn't…

_Damn it! _He was going to have to ask her, seeing Galen lose Keller, even for a brief time. David thinking he'd lost Gillian… Mary-Lynette after she'd lost Ash forever…he couldn't not ask. What did he have to lose, after all? She couldn't leave him, she loved him too much.

"Maggie," he found himself choking the word, _great, that's going to make her agree – turn on the waterworks, _he thought to himself sarcastically, "have you changed your mind about…what you discussed during our time in my kingdom?" he had difficulty saying the last two words, because, of course, it hadn't really been his kingdom since Hunter came along and warped the whole thing.

"about everyone deserving freedom?" she asked, and he blanked. Had she actually said that, or was she just – as modern culture put it – jerking his chain?

"No…that's good too, but no…" he paused, "I was talking about becoming a vampire."

"Rashel and Quinn inspired you, huh?" she asked, and already he knew the answer was going to be no.

"I suppose," he said, scratching his head, "the answer's no, isn't it?"

she nodded, "but I'm only seventeen, there's another three years almost to go before we miss the deadline, maybe my answer will still be no, I don't know…"

"I understand."

Now, she was the one who looked like she was going to turn on the waterworks, "I want to be with you, Delos, I just don't want to have to drink blood and…"

"I said I understand…"

"Don't think I don't love you, because I do," she went on, ignoring his words.

"Maggie…"

"Marry me," she said the words in a rush, so it came out 'Marimay,' he stared at her for a moment, cleared his throat, "what did you say?"

"Err…Delos Redfern, would you marry me?" she said cheerfully now.

"I can't…it's improper of you to ask, I should be the one asking," he stated.

She rolled her eyes, he had learnt this gesture now: she was impatient, "well, I've waited months…I got bored, goddess help me. It's not a leap year, but so what? Women's independence and all…"

"yes," he muttered.

"What was that, I couldn't HEAR you!"

"Yes, Maggie, I'll marry you," he grinned, then leaned forward and kissed her with a force that knocked her over, they kissed for ages, and it felt as though only a moment had gone by.

"Oh errr…I'm sorry…didn't mean to intrude," there was a voice at the ledge and Maggie glanced up, "Miles!" she stood, adjusted her shirt so it wasn't halfway up her abdomen anymore, and ran a hand through her messed up hair. Delos glared, "you pick your moments."

"He doesn't seem happy," Miles observed, "have you asked him yet?"

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

"Yes," Maggie repeated, a smile on her face.

"Wait!" Delos yelled, "it's a conspiracy! The whole damn world knew but me!"

"We all wanted to surprise you, darling," Maggie said in a drawl as he climbed to the next ledge. He pretended to be angry, but he couldn't have been happy. it had been predetermined, which meant she hadn't just said it because she was upset at disappointing him.

Too bad it wouldn't be forever.


	30. Chapter 30

Someone brought up the matter of the apocalypse with me, but since it's after the millenium already, lets just say that the date the world is going to have to be destroyed or saved in…say…ten years in the future, this is pushing the actual books a lot, but I need it to be like that. Trust me.   
TWO MONTHS AFTER THE RETURN OF KELLER 

Jez was happy to get out of Galen's mansion for the first time in two months. Sure, his shape shifter servants were very kind and hospitable, the witches were too caring, but she was sick of it. She knew it was for her own good – or at least that they _thought _it was for her own good – but she had longed for two months for her and Morgead to get better so they could ride into the sunset on their bikes. Now they were going to do just that, Jez loving touched the Harley that Galen had bought for her when she had screamed bloody murder about the only vehicles he had were cars. He hadn't done it out of compassion, she suspected, more because she was disturbing Keller with the noise she was making. He had also bought Morgead one, and now they had their babies, they were going to ride them.

_Some things never change._

But some things did. Now, instead of them riding away to beat the shit out of some of the enemy, they were going to the beach, just revelling in their freedom. Jez suspected Morgead was going to ask her something, she also – knowing what he was like – suspected that it wasn't marriage like Maggie and Delos. And it couldn't possibly be that he wanted her to be a vampire, like Quinn and Rashel, because she already was one, now that she was having blood meals.

_Jesus…he better not ask me to have his kids, like Eric and Thea…_she thought with a grin. But no, this was Morgead; the thought of kids never entered his head.

_Thank God._

He stopped on the beach, and she followed, watching him walk, he turned and grabbed her shoulders, kissing her deeply. She shut her eyes in ecstasy, what they'd been through only brought them closer, now – nothing could keep them apart.

They sat on the beach for a while, watched the water crash against a cliff. It was strange, how water was the most powerful element while being so gentle and calming…it could drown people, erode buildings and cliffs but it filled you with tranquillity.

There was a short laugh from Morgead, more like a snort, "you're going to think I'm so stupid bringing you down here to ask you this, Jez…"

"You brought me down to _ask _me something?" she asked in mock-incredulity.

He gave her a look that said 'you know I did' and she quietened, "but…god Jez…we have to figure out our future. Everyone around here is having kids and getting married and getting engaged and…" he paused, glanced at her face, "I don't want any of those things yet, unless you do… I mean…"

Ahah! Her suspicion had proved correct!

"I don't," she assured him, "not yet, maybe not ever, I enjoy my freedom."

"Oh," his head ducked then, "freedom to do what?"

"Freedom not to get tied down with a squawking baby?" she guessed.

"But what about the marriage thing? You could still have the same amount of freedom… and…"

She realised that he was feeling insecure; he thought that she meant she wanted to freedom to see other guys. That struck her as funny, Morgead_; insecure? _But she knew he did have his stages, he just hid them very well since his mother walked out on him and left him alone. He probably thought Jez was something like her…

"Yeah, the marriage thing, yeah. Not yet though, we'd just look like we were copying everyone else," she grinned as though she hadn't figured out his deep, dark secret of being insecure. _Shock horror._

"Right, so…" he paused, then the words rushed out, "I want to stop my aging…"

Okay, so that was strange. It wasn't at all what Jez had expected him to come out with. Of course, stopping your aging was a big decision, because you couldn't live with it for a few centuries and then realised you wanted to age to thirty, you'd just go POP into a skeleton-like old vampire.

"But…?" she encouraged.

"If you don't want to, yet, I wont…I mean, you can't be thirty or forty and have an eighteen year old boyfriend, people would look at us funny."

Jez laughed, "and you _care?"_

"Yes, I want it to be perfect, Jez, I don't want anyone to doubt our relationship, call you a cradle-robber or… if you want to age to like thirty, I'll do that too, but I thought we should discuss it."

She hadn't really thought about it, but now she did, she did very carefully. He was right, really, they couldn't be at completely different ages when they stopped their aging, and why not now? The time when they were youngest, most able-bodied and beautiful?

"Sure, now it is," she told him, then kissed him, forcing him down into the sand. They had been in different rooms when recuperating, hadn't even been able to see each other until last week. Now, she put in all her pent-up passion into the kiss.

She swore to at least try and stay alive for him.


	31. Chapter 31

**THREE MONTHS AFTER THE RETURN OF KELLER.**

The baby was born one month premature, which didn't surprise the doctors in the slightest, except in the fact that it wasn't born earlier, after what they called 'your restless behaviour' this was said with disappointment, and Thea felt a rush of annoyance at that…if only they knew…

But they didn't know, and maybe they'd never know. Before she went into labour, she had been talking to Mrs. Ross and Rosemund; Eric had been sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her hand. His mother had been in every day – without fail – she had gotten over the shock of Thea and Eric being parents at only eighteen, had brought a jumpsuit for the baby when it was eventually born. Yellow, so that it was unisex, Rosemund had wanted to buy a bright red Santa suit, she didn't seem to realise that it was two months to Christmas and the baby definitely wouldn't take that long – thank goddess.

Both Thea and Eric would be starting at Davis a semester late, they explained their absence due to the fact that she was pregnant, that she _had _been stabbed through the abdomen, and that one of her cousins had been kidnapped, one of her friends dead. She needed Eric for _moral support, _they appreciated this, it just meant that they'd both graduate a year late or have to put in summers to get there on time.

Thea was sick of being in hospital, suffered it for almost two months, although her friends visited as often as they could, rotating between Galen, Jez and Morgead, and her, and although Eric was with her every day and most of the night – they'd practically set up home in the hospital – she had dozens of books by her bed and had read all of them. The sooner the baby came the better.

But she hadn't wanted it to be early. She'd been warned about it, of course, what with her 'difficulties' in the pregnancy – difficulties like exhaustion and stabbing – they'd said that a baby born that premature suffered more than a large chance of dying, that if they didn't die, it would most likely be very ill.

She personally didn't like to think of that.

When her contractions started, Eric was running down the hall for a doctor, when he came back with one, along with a midwife, Rosemund and Mrs. Ross were ushered out the room. He made a move as though to go too, but Thea grabbed him, "no way…this baby is half your fault, if I have to suffer for it, then you bloody well have to too…"

And for the next twelve hours, he sure suffered, even if he hadn't been right beside her, feeling his hand crushing with each contraction, he would have suffered. He could feel her pain through the soulmate link – _whoever said men didn't suffer in labour? – _and it was agonizing, he was sure other people on the ward were looking at one another and thinking 'what do the doctors here _do _to their patients' as Thea screamed. He hadn't known she could yell that loud.

Eventually, their baby was born; neither of them got to hold it before it was risked away to be washed and put in an incubator, but a few moments later, the midwife returned with the baby, looking surprised and stunned, "it's a girl," she said, passing the baby to Thea, "she's a miracle baby, I tell ya. Her mommy gets stabbed and she lives, she's born a month earlier and there's nothing wrong, she wanted to shock us all. Must have." she shook her head, but Thea and Eric's attention was already on the baby.

"Hello Blaise," Thea whispered, the baby had her eyes closed, had been a surprisingly silent baby. Everyone had worried she might be stillborn, but she was so obviously alive, Thea looked up at Eric, "it is still okay if we call her Blaise?"

"Of course," he grinned, his voice hoarse, and reached over to stroke Blaise's hair. It was blonde, just like his and Thea's, more sandy-blonde like his though. And Blaise opened her eyes.

Her eyes weren't green like his, or brown like Thea's. They were smoky grey and surprisingly hard. It was a stare he knew well. Too well.

"Goddess," Thea gasped while he was struggling not to say a worse word.

The baby had _exactly _the same colour eyes as the original Blaise, her namesake.


	32. Chapter 32

**FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE RETURN OF KELLER.**

She stared into her mirror, one would never know that she had been tortured so. Illiana had done a good job – a _great _job – of making her look like the old Keller. Unfortunately, she was sitting at the mirror in her underwear, and it might be a good job to put her dress on before getting to the church, were she and Galen would be joined forever in front of…oh…only all the shape shifters and Daybreakers. Okay, not that many would be allowed into the church, but she wouldn't be surprised if she found the wedding was videotaped and passed among those who weren't invited.

It was a scary thought, but at least she'd look good.

Her looks had been the point of much disruption between her and Galen for the first two months. She had, insecure for the first time in her life, told him that she understood if he married someone who looked better than her, because who wanted to marry someone ugly? He couldn't possibly be attracted to her…

He had diminished those thoughts, even in her darkest hours, he had given her the herbs the witches had advised for depression and just held her, willing her to believe he loved her for more than looks.

Luckily, since then she had healed somewhat. Her face wasn't quite as scarred, although her leg especially would never be unscarred, whatever Thea had insisted she came putting into them was working, her face wounds had been reduced to two small scars – one in front of her ear, one underneath her eye.

"Illiana?" she asked, "did you ever regret letting me promise to Galen instead?"

"After what happened to you just because you were engaged?" the other girl laughed, "no. I wasn't in love with him, Keller, not really. It was attraction. I'm glad he makes _you _happy, and that _you _make him happy. I love him like a brother, not like a husband," Illiana made a face, "and I still have my _freedom!" _she sang the word so high that Keller flinched, she was as loud and high-pitched as a five year old on ecstasy.

In the past months, her mother had deteriorated. She wasn't dead yet, but soon…she and Keller had gotten to know one another and even though she was dying, Keller hadn't forgave her. She didn't see her mother dying as a reason why she _should _forgive her, but she had learnt not to despise her. Her mother had insisted she name the son, and – so that he wouldn't go around called _it _or _him _for the rest of his life – she had suddenly came out with Malak. Angel in Arabic, maybe with a name like that he'd be better guided than she had been.

Malak Panter, a weird name, but pretty cute, Keller thought. The kid annoyed her in the same was Illiana's brother had, but at the same time she adored him. He would stay with her and Galen forever, she wouldn't let him be passed from foster family to foster family like she had been.

Slipping on the strapless black dress with the red lace, she twirled. She put on her shorts underneath, but she didn't anticipate any fighting. Everything was perfect.

"Beautiful," Illiana smiled, then scrunched up her nose, "but my blue earings don't go."

"Nothing blue would go," Keller laughed, "and these are covered by my hair," they sure were, hair that had been sleek and straight before but was now in a spiral of curls.

"Still…" Illiana sighed, "we can't change it I suppose."

"sure we could, how about red? Head, bed, lead, dead," she paled, okay not red, "Or white. I know, something loose, something tight, something stolen and something white…"

Illiana giggled, "just wear the earrings, leave the poetry to Galen," she reached behind Keller's throat to clasp the necklace – leant from Thea – it had a red stone in the centre, was in the shape of a heart with beautiful patterns entwined, something Blaise had given her. She knew it meant a lot for Thea to lend her the necklace, all the girls had offered to lend stuff, but Thea had practically insisted.

"What's your something old?" Illiana asked impatiently, scouring the dresser, Keller pointed towards her skirts, "my shorts. Had them since I was a kid, they fit like hot pants now," Illiana laughed again, then put the something new around her wrist: a glittering ruby bracelet Galen had bought for her.

She glanced at herself in the mirror again. Asked herself for the fifteenth time if she was ready for this.

Thought of Galen, sweet Galen, patient and understanding and gentle. Loving her even though she wasn't as beautiful as she'd been when they first met.

Yes. She was ready.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Galen couldn't help the goofy smile that he knew was spreading across his face as he and Keller looked at one another from either side of the aisle, she – of course – was as composed and as emotionally blank as ever, but that was okay, Galen knew that inside she was happy, if not as over-the-moon ecstatic as he.

He heard his own voice say 'I do' even though he couldn't hear what the priest was saying, he was too enticed by the way Keller's small smile was a big improvement on her usual frown, how she outshone those standing behind her: Nissa, Winnie and Illiana easily. She didn't need all the makeup she was wearing; she would have looked beautiful doused in green powder.

The dress was black: dark and with a lot of red, the colour of love, of blood, of anger, it couldn't have suited Keller more.

_My god, what did I ever do to deserve her? _He asked himself, he knew that the reason they were getting married so early was because technically they had to, but that didn't change a thing. It would have happened eventually.

Both of them had had their families snatched away from them all too cruelly, and Galen felt that his entire purpose in life was to change that, he knew that they were too young for kids really, that Keller wouldn't want anything to jeopardize her life as a warrior, and that they couldn't bring a child into a life where it could stand to lose both its parents easily…but one day…

The rest of the ceremony rushed past in a blur for Galen, later he would look at the video Lira insisted on making and not remember most of it, except the adoring way he couldn't stop looking at his wife, funny how that felt to say – his wife – he wasn't sure he would be able to get used to it, but when eventually it was said 'you may kiss the bride' he moved in, almost tripping over his own shoes in order to seal their marriage. He bit her lip by accident, so she bit his tongue as payback. They both smiled.

**FINISHED! WOOHOO! LOL**

**I HAVE IDEAS FOR A SEQUEL, WANT ONE? WOULD KILL ME IF I WROTE ONE? EITHER WAY, I'M GOING TO, BUT YOU CAN TELL ME YOUR OPINION ON THE MATTER ANYWAY :D HEHE PLEASE STILL REVIEW, EVEN THOUGH IT'S FINISHED**

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